by Paul on Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:46 pm 
The tikicino
This fine firey fellow used to live at Danny Balsz' restaurant 'The Tiki's' in Monterey Park. It's current fate is unknown, see: http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentr...ic=3251&forum=10&9
Who made this?
Machine is a rebodied gaggia orione. The most likely candidate for the body work is abc. A friend provided to me a history of them:
abc (founded by the carpiac family) maintained a metal
shop where they fabricated both standard decorative
bodies for their machines as well as made-to-order
"one-off" creations.
at one point there was an item in a u.s. coffee trade
publication that the co. had been bought by a man from
atlanta who had a background in the wine biz. they
maintained a warehouse in waycross, georgia. this was
mcmxcvi but the sun valley california location never
seemed to move.
it has now evidently been purchased by yet a third
fellow who also does pasta:
http://www.deluxecoffeepasta.com/default2.asp
just the ticket for mocha java at your next luau.
