New pasta restaurant from noted team opens in Mission
Penny Roma, the latest restaurant from the acclaimed Flour + Water team, opened in the Mission Monday night with simple pastas and slices of “epic” Nutella-inspired chocolate cake.
Chefs Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow, who coown the restaurants with other partners, announced the opening in Instagram posts on Sunday and Monday.
Where Flour + Water is known for putting an inventive California spin on pastas, Penny Roma is the owners’ more pared-down homage to “tried and true” classics, like tagliatelle with Bolognese and cacio e pepe, said chef Thomas McNaughton, who co-owns the restaurants with chef Ryan Pollnow and other partners. All the pasta will be made fresh on-site, like a fregola sarda, a couscous-like pearl pasta from Sardinia that’s extruded, dried and then toasted before it’s cooked for a deep nutty flavor. The menu also includes crudos and entrees like a chicken under a brick and cotechino, a large Italian pork sausage.
For dessert, there’s that chocolate cake, topped with candied hazelnuts and soft whipped cream, plus pomegranate bay leaf sorbet and buffalo milk gelato.
The restaurant at 3000 20th St. will be open daily for dinner, 5:30-10 p.m.
The overall vibe they hope to pull off is an unfussy dinner party.
“The food is meant to be very approachable, craveable and straightforward,” Pollnow said.
They’re reserving 40% of the restaurant’s 64 seats for walkins. If there’s a wait, they’re encouraging diners to pass the time by grabbing a glass of wine and a snack at the nextdoor Flour + Water Pasta Shop, which they see as an extension of Penny Roma. The two businesses share a dining room, where people can eat Pasta Shop hoagies and chop salads during the day while Penny Roma is closed. The shop offers 24 seats outside and about 12 seats inside, all walk-in only.
Meanwhile, the pandemicborn pasta shop has changed, too. It has a new evening menu filled with “things that encourage sipping,” Pollnow said, like salt cod fritters, roasted brassicas dressed in a prosciutto XO sauce and house-made seafood conservas. Customers can also choose a tinned fish and bottle of wine from the pasta shop’s retail shelves to enjoy with dinner; the majority of bottles on the Penny Roma wine menu are also for sale at the shop. Starting Monday, Oct. 11, they’re offering a new “day drinking discount”: all bottles of wine at the pasta shop are half off until 3:30 p.m., seven days a week. It will also continue to sell fresh pastas by the pound and sauces to cook at home.