Beretta: Not High-Caliber but Not Misfiring
UPDATED: April 30, 2008
Walking into Beretta was like walking into a party hitting on all cylinders – loud, in a good way. The din was generated by dozens of animated conversations, people having a great time with one another, fueled, no doubt, by cocktails from the bar’s extensive list.
I was solo and not in the mood for loud. The hostess kindly guided me away from the couple of open tables near the front, through the crowded dining room, to a (slightly) quieter table in the back corner.
Studying the menu, it struck me as peculiar. Extensive selection of starters. Pizzas. Risottos. That’s it – pizza and risotto are the only mains. Odd.
To begin, I selected the asparagus, egg and olivata antipasto ($5.00). Absolutely divine. Pencil-thin spears of grilled asparagus. Not-quite-hardboiled egg, sliced longitudinally. What you or I would call tapenade. A bit of olive oil. While each element was excellent in its own right, the real payoff came when tasting them together. The flavors complemented one another perfectly. I closed my eyes and savored.
The spicy Italian sausage, panna and spring onion pizza ($13.00) was good but not great. The crust was thin but droopy in the middle. The spring onion was strong with a very hot, oniony taste. It seemed like that prep cooks got lazy and left some large onion chunks in the mix. Had the onion been chopped more finely, and used more sparingly, the overall effect would have been better.
I brought a margherita pie ($11.00) home for Mackie, upgrading the cheese to burrata (additional $3.00). My server advertised burrata as a creamier version of mozzarella, one that would spread more evenly over the pizza when baked. Mackie said that if the burrata spread more evenly, she’d have hated to see the pie with the regular mozzarella. She too complained about the droopy crust but liked the flavors.
Don’t tell Mackie this but, after the spice of the Italian sausage, onions and hot chili flakes, I wanted something sweet and cool to end my dinner. Dessert is limited at Beretta – vanilla ice cream and chocolate gelato – but suited my needs.
I went for the gelato ($7.00). But itself, it was fine. The ice cream had rich chocolate taste and the scoop would have been ample for two people to share. But the caramel sauce at the bottom of the bowl and the cookie crumbled over the scoop were annoying. The sauce was easy enough to avoid by not finishing the gelato but the cookie crumbs were another story. Look, people, you don’t have to get all fancy with presentation, just give me a scoop of gelato in a bowl. You committed a cardinal sin, you let presentation degrade taste and texture!
The real disappointment of the evening was my cocktail. Beretta is supposed to be the Blind Faith of bars. A supergroup of rock star bartenders from around the City have picked up shifts. Eater SF has been gushing all over themselves about the all-star lineup.
I ordered the Agricole Mule ($9.00), which purported to contain rum, lime, ginger and mint. I know it contained mint because I saw a large sprig in my glass. I know it contained ginger because I could taste it. But that was the problem, ginger was all I could taste. Even with the visual cue of the sprig, I detected no hint of mint flavor. Rum or lime? Fuhgettaboudit.
Look, master mixologists, I like ginger beer. But if I want ginger beer, I can buy some for heckuva lot less than $9.00 per glass. So, don’t serve me something that tastes like ginger beer in your bar. Let me taste the rest of the ingredients too. It’s called balance. Achieve it.
The atmosphere at Beretta is nice. Rich, dark wooden interior (or did it look dark because the lights were low?). A bit cramped, with tables close to one another. No tablecloths. Noisy, in an upbeat way. Parking can be difficult – it is the Mission, after all – but I found free parking on a side street about a block away.
I wouldn’t return to Beretta for pizza if other nearby places, notably Little Star, are available. But Beretta is open until 1:00 A.M., seven nights a week, making it a great option if you miss earlier closing times.
I suspect that the best way to enjoy Beretta would be to assemble a meal from several antipasti. I’ll try that the next time I go.
Beretta
1199 Valencia Street
at 23rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-695-1199
Map
Web site
Food inspection score: N/A
Symbol of Excellence: N/A
-Friendly: Casual Date
Post-review note: While the handgun allusion in the title was natural given the restaurant's name, I now regret it in the light of this story regarding an armed robbery less than a week after my visit.
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