North Beach's movable feast - San Francisco, CA

Hot new restaurants add glamour to San Francisco's favorite neighborhood

I'm at a window table at Tavolino, making short work of some deep-fried olives - morsels so delicious they should be considered bar food of the gods. From my perch, I scan Columbus Avenue's passing parade: longtime Italian-American residents, newcomers from Asia, artists and musicians toting notebooks, canvases, guitars. In one direction I see St. Francis of Assisi, San Francisco's first Catholic parish church, founded in 1849. In another shines the sleek facades of the new high-energy restaurants that have revived this much-loved San Francisco neighborhood as a nightlife mecca.

This return to North Beach is a sentimental journey. I used to live in this neighborhood, and so have strong feelings about its character and future. In 1974, I moved into a tiny apartment above the Basque Hotel on Romolo Alley, just a tassel throw from the bawdy corner of Broadway and Columbus. Carol Doda, her Condor club, and neighboring strip joints held little allure, but the markets, delis, and butcher shops of my new neighborhood surely did - for I was a serious young cook, and in those days the best ingredients in San Francisco could be found right here.

Now, after more than two decades away, I've returned to North Beach for several days of exploration. Throughout its history this 20-block urban enclave has been a haven for Italian fishermen, wayward Beats, and countless aspiring 20-somethings like myself. I wanted to see how the place had changed. And, I hoped, how it had not.

There are two distinct North Beaches. The one garnering headlines is the nighttime neighborhood. Glamorous new restaurants have transformed streets that had started to seem frozen in time with their gaudy but tired strip clubs, bars, and pasta joints. Now the young, hip, and moneyed are thronging to places like Moose's, Rose Pistola (already a fixture on national magazines' best-restaurant lists), and Enrico's, a venerable hangout recently revitalized.

"It's a different crowd in North Beach now," says Rick Hackett, executive chef at Enrico's. "We've seen the change since we took over Enrico's in 1991. North Beach was popular on weekends then, but mostly with strip-club customers and serious drinkers. Now it's hopping every night with a different kind of clientele."

NORTH BEACH NIGHTS AND DAYS

These newcomers have pumped terrific energy into North Beach. And yet in some ways I prefer the other North Beach - the daytime North Beach - perhaps because the neighborhood it used to be shines through more clearly in the sunlight.

My advice: Enjoy your night on the town. But try to take a morning stroll, too, fueled by strong coffee from one of the neighborhood's signature cafes. Amble through Washington square, North Beach's green heart. Then walk down Columbus Avenue. Check your watch against R. Matteucci & Company jewelers' huge 1908 street clock. Soon it's lunchtime, and you'll find your own power table waiting for you at that restaurant whose waiting list you couldn't crack last Friday night.

Then stroll some more and hit some of the classics: Puccini, Trieste, Enrico's, and Roma among the cafes, Stella and Victoria for biscotti and pastries. Pay homage to the poetic and political clutter of City Lights Bookstore with its unwavering commitment to uncommercial literature, and to A. Cavalli & Company Italian Bookstore and its incomparable inventory of Italian CDs, not to mention its proud storefront banner proclaiming "Our 118th Year!" And somewhere along the way you begin to understand the North Beach that once was, in the words of one historian, "a magnet for radicals, anarchists, populists, Communists, Wobblies, bohemians, Abstract Expressionist painters, performance artists, poets, jazz musicians, playwrights in experimental theater, atheists, Buddhists, and street musicians." Wobblies are thin on the ground today, but you'll see that North Beach still harbors enough musicians, artists, and poets to guarantee a certain level of local color.

Now, dusk is falling, and the face of R. Matteucci's clock begins to glow. Here come the crowds: They're packed into Black Cat or Moose's; they're scoring sidewalk tables at Tavolino and Enrico's for an evening of conspicuous cappuccino consumption. Or they're just standing in clusters on the sidewalk, waiting to get in here or talking about the prospect of getting in over there instead. Even in the hubbub, they are aware of being in a place that is not like any other in San Francisco, or the world. Find a seat and savor the parade. You're in North Beach, after all.

RELATED ARTICLE: North Beach travel planner

A roughly 20-block enclave near San Francisco's northeast corner, North Beach is bounded by Russian Hill on the west, Washington Street on the south, Bay Street to the north, and the steep slopes of Telegraph Hill to the east.

The North Beach Chamber of Commerce (556 Columbus Ave., 415/9892220) publishes a good neighborhood map. For sample restaurant menus, information about special events, and other information, you can visit their Web site at www.sfnorthbeach.com.

Area code is 415 unless noted.

Restaurants: Superstars

Adolfo's Ristorante e Bar. This fairly new contemporary Italian restaurant offers a classic menu - antipasti, pasta, meat, and fish secondi - but gives most dishes a distinctive twist. The wine list is particularly strong. 570 Green St., 434-8080.

Black Cat. Call in advance for reservations at chef Reed Hearon's newest addition to the San Francisco dining scene. The menu is a culinary salute to the varied threads that weave the fabric of North Beach life; that's why you'll find Italian-inspired shellfish dishes cheek by jowl with Singapore stir-fries. 501 Broadway, 981-2233.

Enrico's Restaurant and Supper Club. A lovingly revived North Beach landmark, Enrico's functions simultaneously as a quality dining room, jazz club, neighborhood bar, and outdoor cafe. 504 Broadway, 982-6223.

Moose's. There's nothing particularly Italian about crab cakes, grilled chicken, and ribeye steak, but Moose's can launch into a culinary aria when so moved: a recent plate of orecchiette with seared ahi tuna, aged balsamic, and ricotta salata cheese was a grand opera of assertive flavors. 1652 Stockton St., 989-7800.

Rose Pistola. The cuisine of Italy's Liguria region is not well known hereabouts, though its emigrants helped populate North Beach. Rose Pistola fills that gap. It opened to great acclaim in 1996 and continues to hum with business lunchers and serious nighttime eaters. 532 Columbus, 399-0499.

Tavolino Ristorante and Cicchetti Bar.

Tavolino's flavorful cicchetti (roughly, little plates) are the Venetian version of tapas. The main dishes - also Venetian-inspired - include grilled fish in saor and baccala mantecato. 401 Columbus, 392-1472.

Other attractions

Among Italian dells in North Beach, Molinari Delicatessen (373 Columbus, 421-2337) is the acknowledged standard-bearer.

For pastries, try Stella Pastry (446 Columbus, 986-2914) and Victoria Pastry Company (1362 Stockton, 781-2015); the latter is a time-honored provider of neighborhood wedding cakes.

North Beach runs on espresso and its variants. You'll want to visit legendary Caffe Trieste (601 Vallejo St., 392-6739). After that, assess the mood and the mocha at Caffe Greco (423 Columbus, 397-6261), Caffe Puccini (411 Columbus, 989-7033), or Caffe Roma (526 Columbus, 296-7662).

Other North Beach highlights include City Lights Bookstore (261 Columbus, 362-8193), R. Matteucci & Company (450 Columbus, 781-1063), and A. Caralli & Company Italian Bookstore (1441 Stockton, 421-4219).

Lodging

You can find rooms - not always quiet, but always serviceable or better - at the Washington square Inn Hotel (1660 Stockton, 800/388-0220; rooms 7 and 8 have park views) and the more recently opened Hotel Boheme (444 Columbus, 433-9111). The latter, with its elegant interior and walls adorned with historic North Beach photos, is a particularly attractive option in a location that couldn't be more central.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Sunset Publishing Corp.
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