by Marvin Ramírez
Owner of El Zocalo and El Valenciano dies: ‘Edgar’ Vides, rests in peace
The news of one of San Francisco Latino community’s sudden passing away of popular restaurateur , Edgar Vides, has left the Mission PiñeraDistrict and beyond in a state of shock. He was 64.
The night on Dec. 17 had a clear sky, and the chilly weather that had kept people close to their heater, indoors, had diminished. On that evening, Mr. Vides was talking to his brother Carlos, sitting down at his other El Zocalo Restaurant at El Camino Real in South San Francisco, when suddenly his head bent down forward. He was dead, instantly, and accord-ing to sources he suffered a heart attack. There was no noise or complaint.
Dozens of people, including members of Mr. Vides’s large family and friends, came to pay their respect to the family at his funeral reception at Valente Marini Perata.
Most people who knew him considered Mr. Vides a complete gentleman, a man full of joy, full of life, who always was there to talk and greet his customers personally, and one who threw a joke that made everyone laugh. He was someone special and loved. But he overworked himself, said his beloved wife.
“Edgardo always told me that he would live up to 100 years, because he was feeling stronger than a 18-year-old young man, and that he was so strong as the oak,” said his wife Victoria Vides.
But he neglected his health.
“And yes, he was strong, but he couldn’t understand that his body had a (health) condition, which if it went untreated by a doctor, it would kill him before his wishes,” Mrs. Vides said.
“The pain that I feel today in my heart, is because I will not be able to listen to him telling me how happy he was in the house that he decorated with such love for me,” Mrs. Vides said.
“I was just with him… he (Mr. Vides) was a type of person that even when I hadn’t seem for several weeks, he would greed you as if he hadn’t seen you for one day,” said Jake Pavlovsky, board president of Mission Neighborhood Centers.
Mr. Vides, born on Aug. 20, 1945 in San Salvador, came to San Francisco in 1972. When he went to eat at El Zocalo Restaurant, which was owned by Mrs. Vides’s aunt and uncle, he met Victoria. “My aunt liked him, so one of those days when I went to help them at the restaurant, they introduced us,” said Mrs. Vides to El Reportero. They got married in Sept. 28, 1974, at St. Anthony’s Church. Soon after, when the aunt and uncle put the restaurant for sale, it was an opportunity for the new wed. They decided to make an offer to purchase it, and with the help of her aunt, they took possession of their new business.
As their love grew and their restaurant consolidated, Mr. Vides got a job a Pacifi c Bell telephone company in 1975, where he worked until 10 years ago, when he retired to dedicate entirely to his other businesses.
In 1979, with the administrative skills of Mrs. Vides, they were purchased another Zocalo Restaurant in El Camino Real in San Bruno. And in 1996, an excellence opportunity arrived to purchase the El Valenciano Restaurant and its building.
Now he is gone, and with the help of “my family and my employees,” Mrs. Vides plans to continue and to maintain what she and her husband built with hard work and love.
The staff, and especially this writer, editor of El Reportero, send our very warm condolence to Mrs. Vides and the rest of the family during this diffi cult time.
Mr. Vides, whose father, José Vides is already deceased, is survived by his mother Rosaura Vides, 82; his wife of 35 years Victoria Vides, 59; four children, three daughters Roxana, Patricia and Lissette, and one son, Edgar; five grandchildren: Jonathan, Jackie, Tatiana and Mateo; and seven brothers and sisters, Vilma, sonia, María Elena, Carolina, Eraclio, José and Carlos.
A mass with body present will be held at Corpus Christi Church on Monday at 10:30 a.m., in San Francisco, and his remains will be taken and buried after the mass to Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Following, a reception will take place at El Valenciano Restaurant, at 1153 Valencia Street, San Francisco.
