Italy In SF

Outside Italy, not everyone knows that the Italian language the way it is spoken today is a modification of the traditional dialect spoke in Tuscany during the first centuries of the previous millennium- and we have Dante to thank for it! That’s why Tuscany doesn’t really have a dialect, only a very distinctive accent and cadence that makes Tuscans really easy to distinguish from every other Italians. Piccino is one of those words that, despite being typically Tuscan, are understood throughout Italy. Piccino means small, tiny.

Piccino is for sure tiny. The space is cramped, but when it comes to food, there’s nothing small about this lovely corner of Portrero Hill. The specialty here is their pizza, and their reputation is built on their using only local, natural, organic products whenever possible. My friend and I wanted to start with an appetizer, and we picked the antipasti platter. It came with a chickpea & roasted garlic spread- really, hummus!, marinated carrot salad, house pickled vegetables, olives, and flatbread. The flatbread was spectacular, and so were the olives and the hummus. A delicious starter while we were waiting for our pizzas.

My friend ordered a Pepperone pizza, with red sauce and mozzarella layered with a delicious salami. I went for the mushroom special- roasted beech mushrooms, crimini mushroom pesto, garlic, and crescenza cheese. Both pizzas were delicious: slightly chewy dough cooked to perfect outside crunchiness, but while I liked the mushrooms the red sauce in the pepperoni pizza was the stuff of legends!

We closed lunch with dessert- a rich flourless chocolate cake, served with a dollop of whipped cream. Maybe a bit too rich for lunch, but delicious nonetheless!

Piccino Caffe’
801 – 22nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 824-4224

Filed under: Pizzerie