(enlace) Newark: Fellini O mixes it up with Italian food, flamenco flair

Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, December 17, 2004

Flamenco dancers, guitarists and singers perform regularl...

If you're in the mood for Italian food, Fellini O Club & Restaurant in Newark has been serving pasta and pizza for the past 10 years.

But if you're craving some exciting, vibrant music to stir your soul, the restaurant also may have just what you need. Since new owners took over three months ago, the restaurant -- named after the famed director Frederico Fellini -- has taken on a decidedly Spanish feel in the form of flamenco.

Dancers, singers and guitarists with national and international reputations have appeared regularly at the restaurant since it opened, performing the colorful, rich music of the southern region of Spain.

Owner Cathrine Diaz teamed with her husband, Eddie, to transform what had been a beauty salon at the back of the restaurant into a club and an East Bay showcase for flamenco, which has been going through a resurgence in San Francisco and San Jose in recent years.

"We're trying to open a new venue of flamenco in Newark,'' said Eddie Diaz, director of the Flamenco Society, a San Jose nonprofit devoted to promoting the flamenco culture in the Bay Area. "Every time the Flamenco Society has done performances in this area there has been a lot of demand from those who don't want to go to San Francisco or San Jose.''

(leer +) [via sfgate.com]