These are the best restaurants for Italian food in the San Francisco Bay Area, from red sauce pasta in North Beach to excellent pizza to Cal-Italian like Flour + Water.
Beard Papa’s opens a new location in Todos Santos Plaza; vegan Japanese launches in Berkeley; coffee, donuts, and beer come to downtown Oakland; Easter take-out options abound; and more Dish.
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Staffers Ashley (left) and Ella at the new Cupcakin’ Bake Shop location in the former Virginia Bakery space in North Berkeley show off the wares. Photo: Joanna Della Penna
When Nosh posted its list of February openings and closings this time last year, there was very little hint as to the looming pandemic lockdown and ongoing months of crisis soon to come. Looking back now, it is remarkable to note that despite the year’s unparalleled challenges, only three of the 18 East Bay food and drink businesses that opened last February have since closed.
Hard-won resilience stories from that February 2020 list include the resurrected Persian restaurant Alborz in downtown Berkeley; U :Dessert Story, still treating folks on Shattuck Avenue; Oakland’s Shawarmaji, that has since morphed from a pop-up to a popular brick-and-mortar; Nibs, a former El Cerrito favorite now slinging pancakes and burgers in West Oakland; and Arizmendi Emeryville, that overcame more than a year of repairs after
Sandwiched between La Farine and Boichik Bagels on College Avenue is the newest addition to Berkeley’s baked goods scene Casa Barotti, a casual grab-and-go “spizzicheria” offering regional Italian bites.
As soon as customers walk inside Casa Barotti, they are greeted with platters of freshly baked focaccia, crispy squares of handcrafted pizza and focaccia farcita with thin slices of porchetta.
“We came up with the name (spizzicheria) because ‘spizzicare’ in Italian means to nibble on,” said Daniele Carsano, the owner of the restaurant. “We thought it would be fun to open a small neighborhood place where people can come down to have a quick glass of wine, a few drinks and a couple of bites of things and these bites being examples of street food from all over our beloved country (Italy).”