HFF Has Lunch: A16

A16 has been a restaurant I've been wanting to try for a very long time. Southern Italian food, what I'm told is the best pizza in town, and a great wine list. I found myself in the Marina early for a meeting and was pleasantly suprised to find that it's open for lunch Wednesday-Friday. I dropped in, sat at the kitchen counter, and had lunch.

Great space, though with an awkward entry--you head in and the bar's on the right but there's no discernible host station which was initially problematic as I waded through the restaurant trying to find out what to do. I was greeted finally by a friendly hostess and I took a seat at the kitchen counter. Nice Italian wine list with some big name California wines thrown in to placate Marina blue hairs. Had an excellent glass of Sagana Nero d'Avola bright and fruity but with a warm dryness that was excellent.

First up was ravioli of beet greens and sausage with braised rabbit. Fucking great. Unlike other ravioli incarnations that have a drop of filling ungulfed by thin floppy pasta, these ravioli were stuffed with bright red filling and the pasta was nice, thick and al dente. The light broth and tender rabbit was great. Simple and elegant but still packed a lot of flavor.

Next I had the quattro formaggio pizza with wild arugula. Probably the best pizza I've had. I still say Pizzeria Delfina has a better crust, but the combination of cheeses and the fresh wild arugula thrown on the pizza right out of the oven was fantastic--once again, simple and elegant but with a lot of flavor. The delightful pasta cook in the kitchen offered me some fried calabrian chiles to put on the pizza, those added a nice earthiness and kick that bumped the pizza up from interesting to awesome.

As a side note, A16's entirely open kitchen meant that a cook threw a whole cleaned and skinned lamb up on the prep counter to butcher, in full view of the dining room. Pretty awesome.

The limited lunch menu was so good I need to get back for dinner where more than just a few primi and pizzas are offered.

Friendly low-key staff too--in fact one of the more pleasant solo dining experiences I've had.

Not particularly cheap, but I left stuffed to the gills.

A16
Chestnut at Divisadero
www.a16sf.com
Reservations: 415-771-2216 or www.opentable.com