Tours of the Tales

Margo St James is a very real person and so is COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), the organization she founded.

The photo shows Café Devine which was located here between the closure of Malvina’s and the opening of Acquolina.    Acquolina’s website.

Acquolina (Malvina's)

Acquolina, 1600 Stockton (northeast corner of Stockton and Union streets)

Acquolina was the location of Malvina’s which figured twice in Tales of the City.  

The morning after she was canned at Halcyon’s, Mona had a leisurely cup of cappuccino at Malvina’s.

Several weeks later, she returned to Malvina's with D’orothea.  They sipped cappuccinos while they caught each other up on their lives since Mona’s departure from New York three years earlier.  D’or told Mona that she was finished with New York and she was back in San Francisco to stay.  Mona drew upon the song, San Francisco, for her reply, “Comin’ home to go roamin’ no more, huh?” (Tales of the City/28 Barbary Lane pp.178-179).  In the “Tales of the City” miniseries, this scene was played out at D’or’s home in Pacific Heights.

Malvina’s was also mentioned in More Tales of the City.  While eating lunch in Truckee, CA, with Mother Mucca, Mona learned that Mother Mucca was returning to Nevada from a COYOTE (that is, a hookers’ union) meeting in San Francisco.  Mona recalled frequently seeing Margo St James, the founder of COYOTE, breakfasting on coffee and croissants at Malvina’s.