Flour + Water opens a togo shop
San Francisco Italian restaurant Flour + Water, a pioneer in the city’s homemade pasta and Neapolitan pizza scene, has expanded with Flour + Water Pasta Shop, a retail and togo operation offering pasta dinner kits, packages of fresh noodles, sauces, prepared meals and wine and beer.
Flour + Water and Central Kitchen, both owned by chef Thomas McNaughton, are currently closed during the coronavirus pandemic, while the Flour + Water spinoff, Flour + Water Pizzeria, remains open in the Mission District. The new pasta venture operates out of the Central Kitchen (3000 20th St.) location. Orders can be placed through the Tock reservation service and then picked up at a set time.
Meal kits include the Elda, with garlic farfalle pasta with pancetta, preserved lemon and pea ragu for $26 (serves two), with readytobake garlic bread. The recipe instructions list everything from the size of the saute pan needed to render the pancetta to how to fold in optional chile oil. In a sense,
Flour + Water Pasta Shop is a real life version of Flour + Water’s popular 2014 cookbook, which covers a range of Italian recipes.
The restaurant’s menu also has prepared classics for two like tagliatelle alla bolognese for $26 and tonarelli cacio e pepe for $21, among many others. On the pantry side of things, a halfpound of dough to make egg noodles at home costs $10 and a frozen pint of ragu bolognese is $12.
While the new project features a grocery aspect that has become popular among Bay Area restaurants since the shelterinplace order in March, the restaurant and store has actually been in the works for over a year, McNaughton said in an email. It will join the Ne Timeas Restaurant Group, which he owns with David Steele.
Still, there’s an undeniable connection to the pandemic with the new project — it was aided by a new statewide initiative High Road Kitchens.
The program was announced this month by Gov. Gavin Newsom and is led in part by One Fair Wage, a national organization dedicated to raising pay and increasing equity among service workers. Through it, restaurants like Flour + Water Pasta Shop can earn funds toward daily operations and the rehiring of staff by vowing to provide livable wages for workers and taking steps to address race and gender inequities within the restaurant industry.
Flour + Water Pasta Shop is also making it possible for frontline workers during the pandemic to order food at free or reduced prices through what are called “community meals,” which are limited to 10 per day and one per person.
“We're thrilled to be included in the High Road Kitchens initiative, and to help our industry bounce back better than it was before,” McNaughton said. “This helps to ensure that some of the country’s best restaurants are the ones who will survive and come back stronger on the other side.”
Flour + Water Pasta Shop. Open noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday. 3000 20th St., San Francisco. www.exploretock.com/ flourandwater, https://flour andwaterpastashop.com