Food for the Soul by Zachary Dembner
“I use the medium of food to reach people and connect with them and make sure that they are healed from the ups and downs and all the turmoil that they experience during the day...I make sure that… they’re restored”
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lvis Presley is many things to many people. To some, he’s a singer. To others he’s a communicator, an icon, a visionary, a rebel, even a hero. But to few people is Elvis Presley a cultural ambassador. Michael Sadri is one of these few people. Over the past century, relations between the U.S. and Iran have been shaky to say the best. Through U.S.-backed coups, the hostages crisis, and nuclear negotiations, the relationship between the two countries has turned decidedly sour. Where many people see a political break, Michael sees a cultural bridge. Armed with passion and ambition, he hopes to
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show the similarities between the two countries through the music of Elvis. Most people in the U.S. don’t know that Elvis is an inspiration in Iran as well as the U.S.--only further exhibiting the culture ignorance between our two countries. Some people in Iran even have shrines to Elvis in their homes. This small cultural similarity that goes completely unnoticed when we think of the U.S. and Iran shows the problem with how we approach relations between our two countries. As we sit outside Vaso Azzurro, Michael’s restaurant, he tells me how he hopes to rent out the Mountain View Center for
Performing Arts and put on an Elvis “Rock-u-mentary”. Looking absolutely nothing like Elvis, Michael believes he’s the perfect man for the part. As crazy as this might sound, he is completely serious. He hopes to get strong U.S. and Iranian backing in order to change our whole approach to foreign relations. He believes that when dealing with each other, countries shouldn’t be looking at themselves as places of two opposing political views, but rather as places filled with people. People who share many similarities, even if they have their slight differences. Michael Sadri’s restau-
rant is more akin to a spa than to an eatery. Yes, they serve food. Yes, you can get any beverage of your choice. But it’s more than that. Michael focuses on healing not only hunger, but the soul. He wants to fill your stomach with good food and your mind with lively conversation and music. Michael has worked in the restaurant business for years and he knows how to cook Italian. Whether it’s the creamy risotto or the melt-in-your mouth steak, you won’t go wrong at Vaso Azzurro. When you’re there, he treats you like family, because you are. He will come over and ask you how you’re doing, make sure you’re having a pleasant experience, even sing to you. In his words, “I use the medium of food to reach people and connect with them and make sure that they are
healed from the ups and downs and all the turmoil that they experience during the day, during the week, during the month. Through food, through wine, through a song here and there. I make sure that…they’re restored”. He has taken his healing attitude far beyond the restaurant and into the area of international relations. Walking down the street with Michael is much like a TV show sequence of a popular kid walking down the halls in a high school; there’s not a person he doesn’t know. It’s the Mountain View Arts and Wine Festival, and it’s virtually impossible to keep up with Michael as he weaves through the mob of people. When he’s not waving to passerbyers or hugging a friend, he’s filming the whole bustling experience on his iPhone. The warmth of the weather mirrors the warmth that Michael has towards the people around him. We are on a mission to find the booth of a restaurant patron who is in town to sell almonds at the festival. But that doesn’t stop Michael from stopping at every booth, saying hello and admiring their wares. Michael’s attitude towards the people around him reflects on everything he does inside and outside the restaurant. Within the restaurant, he treats his patrons as his friends and works to make sure that they are not only comfortable and fed, but healed.
“He really is that crazy, he really is that joyful...that’s really who he is. He’s that way all the time.” - Marc Koltum Outside the restaurant, he treats people the same way. He makes sure that people feel welcome in the community and approaches each of them as he would a close friend. Michael is a man who consists of three layers. There is the outer layer, outgoing and genuine. Then there is a deeper layer where you think he might not be the cheerful person he appears but to be. But in reality, there is a layer past this. In Michael’s heart of hearts, he truly is who he appears to be. He has layers, but their transparency is what makes Michael so special. After you’ve known Michael for a while, you realize that what you see is what you get. Michael’s life began in Tehran, Iran in 1959. His family moved to the U.S. when he was two so that his parents could go to school at Southern Illinois University, but soon moved back to Iran in 1963 when they finished their schooling. Michael completed most of his schooling in Iran at an
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Italian Embassy School. It was considered a special privilege to receive your education at the Italian school and this was Michael’s first exposure to the Italian culture. He learned the ways of the Italians--the cuisine, and of course, the songs. Come 1972, Michael was jerked out of both the Iranian and Italian culture when he moved back to the United States where he finished his second half of high
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school in San Jose, California. Despite the fact that he felt “shellshocked” dealing with this large change, he handled this sharp contrast of cultures with grace. It gave him an opportunity to focus more on the similarities of the cultures than the differences. “Language was different, architectural landscape of the city was different, food was different, but, people were as nice and the girls were prettier,” Michael joked. Michael has been in the U.S. ever since he moved back in 1972 and he loves it. He still views it as the land of opportunity and he plans to stay here for the rest of his life. After high school, Michael graduated from college with a degree in Physiology. He got his Masters and worked in a sports-related job for a while before he “rebelled against the corporate world” and left his job. Having had extensive experience in the restaurant business while putting himself through
college, he took the few thousand dollars he had and combined it with the few thousand his brother had to open his first restaurant. He’s been in the business ever since. His first restaurant, Sea Cliff Cafe, opened in 1987 in beautiful Aptos, California. His next endeavour strayed far from the coast when he opened JJ Michael’s in Sandy, Utah. His current 12 year-old endeavour is Vaso Azzurro, a casual fine dining establishment in Downtown Mountain View. Recently, Michael was diagnosed with a heart condition, but this has not slowed him down. He faithfully serves his patrons as his family and always keeps up his self-proclaimed job title of making sure people continually get “fat and drunk”. As I am shooting video of the restaurant, Michael pulls me aside to introduce me to a family seated in the corner who also happens to own their own share of restaurants.
They are the owners of three branches of Erik’s DeliCafe around the Bay Area. Throughout the night I watch Michael interact with these people. He sings to them, brings them dessert on the house, and treats them like royalty. But what stood out most to me is that after they finished dinner, he stayed in the restaurant talking to them for an hour after closing time. He sang songs from their native country of India with them and talked about their families getting together. There was no pressure to leave once they had finished their meal. Food was only part of why they were there. A restaurant has truly done the job of making their patrons feel at home when
they don’t feel like leaving even after they’ve finished their food. These people may not be his flesh and blood, but they’re certainly his family. Michael is a man with no plans to slow down. Happy, spirited, outgoing, and caring, people like Michael are few and far between. He is a man who is truly willing to put others before himself and stops at nothing to make people feel as happy as he does. Michael is speeding up production on his Elvis Rock-U-Mentary and hopes to secure funding for the project very soon. After this, he hopes to get musicians together and begin to rehearse. While there are many barriers to overcome, financially and otherwise, Michael is
committed to taking this project all the way. In the words of Marc Koltum, a close friend, “When he wants to sing Elvis, look out! Because it’s going to be Elvis tonight”. While he does not have the visual appearance of Elvis, he has the aspect of Elvis that makes Elvis so amazing, the presence. He fills up the room with his voice and personality. If you didn’t know it was Michael, you might think it was the late king of rock-n-roll himself. Michael is a man with both extraordinary vision and a passion for people. Marc sums up Michael perfectly: “He really is that crazy, he really is that joyful...that’s really who he is. He’s that way all the time.”
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