NEWS FROM : Food & Wine  

On February 29th, Gambero Rosso’s Tre Bicchieri US tour made its final stop in San Francisco, after Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, and before April’s Top Italian Wines Roadshow in Dallas and Miami. Fort Mason became the place where wine experts, trade reps, distributors, and media gathered, on a rainy Thursday afternoon. Following the tra...

Looking to introduce traditional Italian dining to Orange County, Luciana Luhan opened Luciana’s Ristorante in Dana Point (CA) in 1983. When Luciana opened her first restaurant – named “What’s Cooking? Bistro” – seven years before opening her namesake restaurant, she introduced the county to homemade pasta and sauces, her son, Jorge Luhan II, said....

I have always loved Italian food and I will never forget the simple, fresh pasta, sandwiches, etc. that I enjoyed years ago in Florence. There are scores of great restaurants here in Southern California, including some lovely Italian food. But there are a few spots that really transport you (or at least your taste buds) overseas. Enter Made In Ital...

Local restaurant Marino’s Pizza & Ravioli will be hosting a visit from America’s Best Restaurants (ABR) in mid-March 2024. America’s Best Restaurants, a national media and marketing company focusing on bringing attention to local, independently-owned restaurants, will bring its ABR Roadshow to the restaurant on March 15th.  Popular dishes will be h...

There’s a long and wonderful tradition of Italian food in San Francisco. Immigrants flooded the Bay Area during the Gold Rush, and while many southerners stayed in New York, simmering hearty red sauces, many northerners landed in San Francisco, bringing a taste for fresh fish, green olives, and bright citrus. North Beach is the historic Italian nei...

A founding family behind San Diego's Little Italy neighborhood, the Busalacchis have opened Lala Italian gastropub next door to sister restaurant Barbusa. A Sicilian immigrant who moved to San Diego as a young boy, Joe Busalacchi took a leap of faith on Little Italy's then-desolate India Street in 1984 when he opened Trattoria Fantastica. Now, 40 y...

Imagine the rich aromas of Italian cuisine filling the air, the sounds of lively conversations, and the warm, vibrant atmosphere of a community coming together for a cause. This was the scene at the Napa Elks Lodge, where the Napa Sons and Daughters of Italy in America hosted their sell-out annual fundraiser, Boot to Fork: Festa Italiana a Napa. A...

One chilly, hazy December morning, a group gathered at the corner of Filbert and Stockton streets in San Francisco as the clock struck 3 a.m. It would be another four hours until Liguria Bakery opened for business, but the crowd didn’t budge. They had fresh focaccia on their minds. Michael Soracco, Liguria Bakery’s third-generation family owner,...

Fiorelli Pizza could have been a big new dining destination, or an intimate place serving creative pies with natural wine. That’s the kind of thing you’d expect from a big-name chef in a big-time market such as Los Angeles, as he rolls out his next project following executive chef stints at high-profile restaurants around Tinseltown.   But Fiorelli...

There is no question in my mind that Cesarina is one of the best five restaurants in the Ocean Beach/Point Loma area. I have never had a bad meal there; the service has been excellent; and the only difficulty I have had is in getting a reservation when I wanted one. Several months ago, the Cesarina group announced they were opening a second restaur...

When Angelo Dalo was looking to open a new Sicilian restaurant, he wanted somewhere you could sit outside. Somewhere like Sicily, where he was born. “In Danville the days are long and hot,” he said. “In Sicily it’s quite hot, and the food is just made to go with that weather, and we love the weather. I’ve always wanted a small space with lots of pa...

The local restaurateur behind Rusticucina, a popular farm-to-neighborhood Sicilian-inspired eatery in Hillcrest, is now paying homage to the city of Rome in San Diego’s Little Italy. The new establishment — called Roman Wolves — is more than a bar and restaurant, according to its creator, Nino Cusimano. “We’ve created our own take on Rome’s legacy...