Still Smitten: Five Things To Love About Sotto Mare When I returned to San Francisco in 2006, fresh from eight frenetic years in New York City, I was looking for a place to settle down–a city that I could call home. Initially, I chose North Beach because the people … Read the rest
Richie Azzolino Of Sotto Mare: The Road Back From Covid If you were out in San Francisco this past weekend, you probably saw exactly what I saw: San Francisco is coming alive once again. The streets were thronged here in North Beach on Friday and Saturday, and although masks were … Read the rest
Family Matters: A Conversation With Sotto Mare’s Ria Azzolino Over fourteen years have passed since I relocated to the North Beach neighborhood from New York, and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my first days here. Coming from the much grittier East Coast, I felt just a little … Read the rest
North Beach Fix: Glimmers Of Hope For A Strange Thanksgiving As we head into Thanksgiving this year, San Franciscans are confronted with an entirely new reality. But as much as the Covid crisis has slowed things down in the city, North Beach has shown a lot of resilience over the … Read the rest
Never Better: My Birthday At North Beach’s Sotto Mare Growing up in a big and very traditional Italian-American family, from an early age I was immersed in the foods of Italy. The dishes my Calabrese grandmother cooked, and that she taught my mother after my parents were wed, defined … Read the rest
Che Cosa? What’s Happening At Sotto Mare Regular visitors to North Beach were recently greeted with a confusing sight at the popular Sotto Mare on Green Street. To the befuddlement of many, a matching blue awning has been erected over the entrance of the former Pasta Pop-Up … Read the rest
As Lockdown Drags On, Beloved North Beach Restaurants Return Today marks the beginning of the eleventh week of lockdown here in San Francisco, and we’re all beginning to grow weary of it. The demonstrations and riots of the last week have only added another layer of frustration and pain … Read the rest
The Salesian Club Crab Feed: North Beach’s Party Of The Year If there is any one neighborhood in San Francisco known for its parties and celebrations, that neighborhood must be North Beach. Since the days of the Barbary Coast, this well-situated parcel of land has always been at the center of … Read the rest
North Beach Is For (Crab) Lovers: It’s Dungeness Season At Sotto Mare The sweetest of all varieties of crab, Dungeness crab has long been San Francisco’s most beloved crustacean. Originally named for Dungeness, Washington on the Olympia Peninsula where the species was first commercially harvested, Dungeness crab can be found from Alaska… Read the rest
The Salesian Club Crab Feed: North Beach’s Biggest Indoor Party North Beach has always been a place unto itself. San Francisco’s most storied neighborhood, today it remains a place of anomalies, of quaint anachronisms and jarring contradictions. A cloistered little village in the middle of one of America’s busiest cities, … Read the rest