General Information | Staff |  Sample Menus | Special Events |  1,200 HATS +    Giusti’s Gallery |  Giusti’s Photo Album |  Reviews   | Tell A Friend! 1,200 Hats On The Ceiling - And Then Some! When was the last time you walked into a bar that had more than 1,200 hats hanging from the ceiling? Unless you’ve just come from Giusti’s, the answer is probably “never”. How this colorful, one of a kind ceiling in Giusti’s bar came to be makes for an interesting two part story, one that has become another chapter of the history and tradition of Giusti’s Place. Part One - In The Beginning In the early 1980’s, local Delta businesses, agribusiness companies and farmers were having a great time making their own logo baseball-style hats and giving them to customers, suppliers and friends. It seemed like everyone was wearing these hats in those days, often a different one for each day of the week. During this same time, more and more of these hats began showing up at closing time at Giusti’s, left behind and forgotten by their owners. As the number of unclaimed hats began to pile up, Giusti’s Place bartender Mark II got the inspiration one slow night to hang them up up on the ceiling over the bar.  By the time he was finished, he had almost two full rows of hats hanging from the ceiling.  As customers came in and saw the hats on they ceiling, many of them wanted to add theirs to the display. Almost overnight, Mark II’s inspiration became a rapidly growing trend - and more and more rows of hats became part of the Giusti’s Place decor.  Part Two - A Delta Community Challenge Becomes A Giusti’s Fundraising Success Story During this same period of time, there was a year when the River Delta Unified School District was facing a severe budget strain, and as a result, had made the decision to eliminate competitive high school sports. That meant that both Rio Vista and Delta High Schools and the Delta communities they served would see a long standing part of community life eliminated.   Mark Morais, a Delta High School graduate in the late 1970’s and himself outstanding Delta high school athlete, saw that challenge as a time to step up for a good cause. He pledged to raise $25,000 to help fund the t River Delta high school sports programs and keep them alive that year, and did!  The Giusti’s hat collection was part of that fund raising success story. Mark came up with the idea of raffling off the hats on the ceiling to help raise part of the $25,000 pledged.  Channel 10 picked up on the story and added their media sponsorship to the Giusti’s hat raffle fundraiser. From there, it took on a buzz of its own as interest began to grow with the community’s desire to help save their high school sports programs. When the raffle day arrived, Dan Adams from News 10 was there to report on the event and the great publicity the the Giusti’s hat collection auction had been receiving.  The entire ceiling of hats was auctioned off that night, and a good amount of money for Delta high school sports programs was raised as a result. The unexpected after effect of the fundraiser was that donors wanted to leave the hats they purchased on the ceiling. They felt good about helping the community need, and seeing the the hats remain at Giusti’s a reminder of that feeling.  So the colorful collection of hats have remained on the ceiling in Giusti’s bar ever since... and now you know why! BACK TO TOP