Hungry I

The hungry i was originally a nightclub in North Beach, San Francisco. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci in 1950.

How the club's name came about is something of a mystery. According to one story, the lower-case "i" was meant to represent "intellectual". Banducci swore that it was literally Freudian and was short for "the hungry id". In another story, the sign was not finished in time for the club's opening, and next-day reviews in the San Francisco papers cemented the name for all time. "I was going to call it the Hungry Intellectual, but I ran out of paint" for the sign, Nord would tell interviewers. In another story, artist Mark Adams came up with the name. "It (the lowercase 'i') designated the first-person singular, with all of its various cravings," he explained in a 1985 interview quoted in a 2006 obituary for him. But it could have simply come from the name of its original location, the basement of the International Hotel, often referred to as the I-Hotel.

Originally located at 599 Jackson Street in the basement of the International Hotel (the I-Hotel), the hungry i and Banducci were also instrumental in the careers of actor/comic Ronnie Schell, comic Bill Cosby, comic Lenny Bruce, and minister Malcolm Boyd. Musically, The Kingston Trio recorded two famous albums at the hungry i, including the first live performance of their version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Tom Lehrer's final satirical album That Was the Year That Was (1965) was also recorded there, as well as The Limeliters' album Our Men in San Francisco (1963).

Jazz legend Vince Guaraldi, folk singer Glenn Yarborough, the Gateway Singers, and comedians Godfrey Cambridge, Professor Irwin Corey, and Mort Sahl were also given career boosts from their appearances at the hungry i, as well as Dick Cavett and Woody Allen. The folk-rock group We Five were signed to A&M records after Herb Alpert saw them perform there.

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