[SF] Beretta

[Chris Hennes]

Website.

We ate here the first day we arrived in San Francisco because they don't take reservations and I hate relying on the airlines to get me anyplace at a particular time. It was an excellent introduction to the city. They have an interesting, varied, and delicious cocktail menu, as well as very reasonably-priced high-quality food.

Food:

Cerignola olives warm w/ citrus. I'm a sucker for olives and these did not dissapoint. Served warm with lemon rind, which gave a lovely aroma and tasted fantastic.

Bruschetta w/ broc rabe. Two generous pieces of bruschetta with a large quantity of rabe and crescenza, also very good.

Polenta w/ gorgonzola. I love gorgonzola, so this would have been hard to screw up: they did not.

Margherita w/ buffalo milk mozz. I was surprised by the quantity of sauce on the pizza, but it was actually not bad at all. Maybe not the best pizza I've ever eaten, but a hell of a lot better than anything I can get in Oklahoma.

Strawberry tart. Nondescript.

To drink:

Single Village Fix (mezcal, lime, pineapple gomme). Nice well-balanced mezcal drink: very smoky, but not objectionably so.

Monte Carlo (rye, benedictine, bitters, orange). Nice Manhattan-genre cocktail, again well-balanced and quite good.