FRESNO RESTAURATEUR VAUGHN RUSTIGAN DIES
Fresno Bee. CA
July 3 2007
He and brothers ran the widely renowned Iran Restaurant.By Jim
Steinberg / The Fresno Bee
Over the years, Vaughn Rustigan and his brothers attracted the late
Eleanor Roosevelt, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, columnist Herb Cain and
U.S. Sen. Pierre Salinger to their signature Iran Restaurant at Tulare
and U streets in Fresno.
Mr. Rustigan died Thursday of congestive heart failure at 94.
His wife, Varse "Vi" Rustigan, daughter Janie Holland and son-in-law
V.L. Holland on Monday recalled a man born and raised in the
neighborhood of Fresno then known as Armenia town. He graduated
from the old Emerson Elementary and Longfellow Junior High schools,
then starred in basketball at Fresno High School, where he graduated
in 1931.
Mr. Rustigan played at 5-foot-10, tops, yet was the second tallest
hoopster of the starters, his wife said, pointing to an old photo.
His team won the Valley Championship. He was his team’s high scorer
and won selection to the All-City and All-Valley teams.
Arthur Rustigan co-owned the Iran Restaurant with Mr. Rustigan and
their brother Burt. Art Rustigan said Monday that the three hired
the Irishman Mark McCoy to cook.
"I tell you, he was a top chef," said Arthur Rustigan, who approaches
his 101st birthday and still drives.
"I’ll show you my license," he offered by phone.
Mr. Rustigan’s family changed its name from Rustigian because of
widespread prejudice in the San Joaquin Valley against Armenians.
His father, Jacob, helped lay the foundation of Holy Trinity Armenian
Church on Ventura Street, not far from where Mr. Rustigan grew up.
Jacob Rustigan never learned to speak or write English fluently; he
bought land outside of town, recognizing that fertile soil and long,
hot summers would nurture crops as they had in Armenia.
Jacob Rustigan and his family lost almost everything during the
Depression, Vi Rustigan said, but managed to rent a house on N Street
for $12 a month.
"He was very proud of his father’s achievements," Vi Rustigan said
of her husband.
After graduating from Fresno High, Mr. Rustigan opened Rusty’s Texaco
Service Station at Ventura and O streets, not far from the church,
selling gasoline for 5 cents a gallon.
He met Vi Merzoian at a Fresno dance, knew he would eventually marry
her and did, in 1939, before the outbreak of World War II.
Mr. Rustigan failed his physical, so he could not fight in the war.
His brother, Bart, got a job with another famous restaurateur, former
Fresnan George Mardikian, in his renowned Omar Khayam’s restaurant at
O’Farrell and Powell streets in San Francisco. The Rustigan brothers
figured they could run their own place but decided to do it at home
in Fresno.
The Iran, as people came to call it, featured Saturday night
belly-dancers and drew revelers from far and near, Mrs. Rustigan
remembered.
The Iran also catered lavish celebrations, including Gov. Edmund G.
"Pat" Brown’s second inaugural dinner in Sacramento. The brothers
were known for spinach salad and for shish kebab. Their bar was a
Valley hangout for politicos and conventioneers, a place to eat and
relax before and after meetings of the liberal California Democratic
Council and conservative California Republican Assembly.
Asked the secret to Mr. Rustigan’s fabled spinach salad, Vi Rustigan
smiled, confiding that "the secret was the secret."
Mr. Rustigan left The Iran and opened Von’s Coffee Shop at Kern and
L, known also as "the lunch spot" downtown and featuring the Von’s
Burger. It won an award for best Fresno hamburger.
Janie Holland remembered her father telling about the author William
Saroyan, young, single and living just around the corner.
"I heard these stories over and over again," Holland smiled.
"He was so proud of his family, this country, coming without the
language, reading or writing," Vi Rustigan said. "He made himself
known because of his work."
Graveside services will begin at 10 a.m. today in Ararat Cemetery.