SEPTEMBER 2007 CORONADO
VISUAL
AWARD

SALVADOR CALVANO

SHERIDAN SQUARE

The Coronado Neighborhood is comprised of many unique individuals who are loved and respected by the community for their valuable contributions.  However, none quite compare to Salvador Calvano.  He is the man responsible for the beautiful renovations of Sheridan Square.  I am sure several of you are frequent visitors to the many businesses he has helped spawn.  They include, but are not limited to, Lisa G's, Drip Coffee Lounge, Organic Soup Cafe and Trente Cinq.  Because of his remarkable achievements, the Coronado neighborhood honors this wonderful, hard working man with the Coronado Neighborhood Visual Award.

The following is Sal's own words describing his journey and how it all came to be. “In looking back at the start my wife  & I just loved the area as we had the building where my son is for many years before this venture . That is where I made the olives. We just jumped in with all four of our feet and took a risk and bit the bullet and bought the property. Knowing that it needed a lot of work we said we would do it a little at a time as moneys permitted. We could have at one point knocked it all down and built two story storefronts and condos above. My wife said NO that we wanted to keep it a neighborhood situation. So we started making many mistakes and going through many hurdles with the city. But we hung in there because we came from a Chicago neighborhood with similar stuff. We funded all of the Restaurants at 0 % interest to help them out and to get them started. We had faith. We have just one more building to go and have plans kind of for an art store with a wine bar that features local artists from welding art to painters and jewelery and much more.”

“The olive pitter is from 1951 and the cleaner that I made the water feature is around the same age, both of which I used when I was preparing the olives. At one time I sold them to high end stores like AJ's and in Napa Valley.”

Please take a minute to browse through the slide show and see for yourselves how lucky we are to have Sal for our own.  Sal, we love you and we love what you've done with our home!!