The interior had Victorian or fin-de-siècle bordello-like decor, with plush red wallpaper, heavy drapes, white linen and formal waiters in black tuxedos.

Located at 847 Montgomery Street near Jackson Square, it was on the edge of the Barbary Coast, a red light district that had been known throughout the world since the 1850s for its brothels, saloons, opium dens, gambling and dance halls, and restaurants with discreet private dining rooms upstairs where additional services could be provided.

The restaurant serving traditional American-Italian food[clarification needed] was so successful that, in 1935,[2] Carlesso and one of his waiters, an immigrant named Ambrogio Gotti,[3] bought the building.

The main dining rooms were decorated with magnificent Victorian crystal chandeliers, the walls covered with maroon Scalamandre silk brocade, the banquettes and chairs in red, the carpets in burgundy, the furniture, antique pieces from some of the great mansions of San Francisco.

The ambiance was that loud, supremely elegant in which the wealthiest nabobs of a hundred years ago might have met the grandest ladies of the night.

[6]French chefs were hired, crêpes Suzette appeared on the menu along with Chicken in Champagne, and by the early 1960s, Ernie's received the first of 32 consecutive annual five-star awards from the Mobil Travel Guide.

In this tricky business climate when expensive formal restaurants are fading in popularity, the owners of Ernie's would do well to reevaluate their attitude toward their customers.