Northern California’s Very First Italian Restaurant Has Literally Been Around Forever
Would it surprise you to know the oldest Italian restaurant in California is located in San Francisco? Fior d’Italia opened in 1886. The restaurant’s name means, “flower of Italy”. Over the decades, the restaurant has changed ownership and even briefly closed for about 6 months in 2012. Despite the brief changes and closing, customers keep coming b...
Lidia Bastianich to receive the Andrew Zimmern Discovery Awards at the TASTE AWARDS
The TASTE AWARDS are pleased to announce this year’s recipient of the Andrew Zimmern Discovery Award. THE ANDREW ZIMMERN DISCOVERY AWARD honors the mission to discover new cultures, new flavors, or new talent. The inaugural winners of this new award were Andrew Zimmern and Tyler Florence. This year’s winner, based on years of contributions to culin...
San Diego's Decades-Old Nicolosi's Italian Reopening This Week In New Location
San Diego's nearly 70 year-old red sauce Italian restaurant Nicolosi's has relocated for the fourth time in its long history and will reopen this week in East County. Sicily-native Salvatore Nicolosi opened the original Nicolosi's as a bakery in 1952 in the Mission Hills neighborhood before moving it to 40th and El Cajon Boulevard in 1954. In 1991,...
Il Casaro Pizzeria fires up a larger menu at the Marina’s new Casaro Osteria
North Beach’s Il Casaro Pizzeria on Columbus Avenue has been among San Francisco’s go-to favorites for Napolitan-style since opening in 2014. It’s popularity led to a second Il Casaro in the Castro three years later, with the same team also opening the North Beach Roman-style pizzeria Barbaro Pinsera in 2018, and California Fish Market a few blocks...
Monini's olive oils win five Oscars in Los Angeles
Monini’s mono cultivars Frantoio, Coratina, and Nocellara 100% Italian organic olive oils have won no fewer than five Oscars – including four gold ones, a Best of Show, and a Best of Class – at the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition, one of the five most important international competitions in the extra virgin olive oil se...
A New Restaurant at the Four Seasons Embarcadero Hopes to Strike Cal-Italian Gold
The team at Four Seasons Embarcadero just renovated the 155-room hotel and built out a new California-Italian restaurant Orafo, set to open on February 27. Orafo chef Gunnar Planter cut his teeth working with James Beard Award-winning chef Martin Woesle at Mille Fleurs as well as at numerous other SoCal restaurants through his 16-year-long career....
Starbucks' new drinks have a spoonful of olive oil in every cup
Starbucks wants you to give olive oil coffee a shot. Really. The coffee chain is rolling out a new line of beverages made with extra virgin olive oil. To be clear, the drinks are not simply flavored with olive oil, nor do they have just a hint of it. Each one is truly made with a spoonful of oil, adding 120 calories to the total. With some drinks,...
Popular Italian Restaurant Opens a Third Spot in a Cozy Corner of Pacific Palisades
Cinque Terre West’s owners continue their expansion into a cozy nook of Pacific Palisades inside the Gardens at Palisades strip mall. Marlo Vinzoni and chef Gianbattista “Gianba” Vinzoni first opened Cinque Terre West there in 2019, then opened wine bar Enoteca 5 in 2021. Finally, on January 31 of this year, they debuted Deliziozo Cinque. That mark...
Chris Bianco to open famous Pane Bianco at Row DTLA
Restaurateur and famed pizzaiolo Chris Bianco doesn’t believe in the perfect pizza. “I think that’s the problem right now with a lot of things that are self-proclaimed ‘the best’ or ‘the perfect’ whatever,” said Bianco. It’s more personal for him, “rarely does one size fit all in that way…. It’s important that we identify things we like, whether (t...
Italy’s World-Famous All’Antico Vinaio Sandwich Shop Is Coming To L.A.
You may have seen a TikTok video floating around with hundreds of Angelenos lined down the block for a sandwich—but it wasn’t just any ordinary sandwich. The viral pop-up belonged to Italy’s most famous sandwich shop known as All’Antico Vinaio. The worldwide sought-out restaurant was born in Florence and started by the Mazzanati family in 1991. Aft...
San Francisco Bay Area embraces Italian food
The San Francisco Bay Area is a mecca for foodies and wine lovers with upscale grocery stores in every neighborhood. Retailers such as Whole Foods, Mollie Stone’s, Draeger’s and Lunardi’s have multiple locations in the densely populated thirty-five-mile peninsula located South of San Francisco. With warm lighting and neutral colors, Whole Foods in...
Magazine Behind "Michelin Star Of Italy" Awards San Diego's Cori Pastificio Top Honors For Italian Restaurant
Italy’s top food & wine publishing group Gambero Rosso has awarded San Diego's Cori Pastificio with its highest honors, which only five Italian restaurants in the entire country received. Similar to France’s Michelin Star Awards, Italy’s Gambero Rosso acknowledges top Italian restaurants around the world on an annual basis. Judges travel to nearly...