San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Major Italian restaurant opens splashy market
The aisles of perhaps the Bay Area’s newest market are packed with Italian olive oils, dried pastas, three shelves of tinned fish and fresh-spun gelato — the makings of an Italian feast from one of the region’s top restaurants.
Il Mercato di Che Fico, from David Nayfeld and Matt Brewer, the owners of the popular Che Fico, opened March 21 in Menlo Park. It’s steps away from Che Fico’s new sister restaurant at Springline, a splashy, foodpacked development on El Camino Real.
People can buy fresh pasta made in the Che Fico kitchen and pair it with sauces like spicy tomato vodka or Bolognese. The deli is slinging focaccia by the pound, sandwiches, cheese, meats and prepared foods. The freezer is stocked with frozen ravioli, stocks, and pints of fresh-churned gelato.
They hope the market will be “a place that can solve all of your food desires,” Nayfeld said.
Nayfeld and Brewer recruited two experts to build their dream store. They consulted with Sam Mogannam of beloved San Francisco market Bi-Rite, inspired by the company’s approach to groceries. The produce section is stocked with the same in-season fruits and vegetables used by the restaurants’ chefs. While there are staples like eggs, flour, spices and cereal, there are also plenty of highend specialty pantry items — Brewer can’t stop eating thin, ultra-crispy truffle crackers from Sardegna, and chocolate-covered almond brittle from Bay Area nut favorite G.L. Alfieri Farms. The mostly Italian wine selection comes courtesy of Che Fico wine director Jason Alexander.
To create a high-quality gelato program, they tapped longtime friend Roy Shvartzapel, an acclaimed pastry chef best known for his wildly popular Panettone From Roy. Nayfeld said he and Shvartzapel share a “maniacal” approach to food: Nayfeld’s white whale being pizza dough and Shvartzapel’s, gelato.
Shvartzapel tested flavors from vanilla and pistachio to gianduja (chocolate hazelnut) on a specialized Italian machine that he believes is used by no other retail store in the country. It produces incredibly low overrun, or the amount of air incorporated into the base, yielding a luscious texture and intense, unadulterated flavor. The market will sell gelato pints to start before opening a walk-up scoop window facing El Camino Real.
Inspired by the Roman tradition of selling slices of pizza by weight, the deli does the same for focaccia and sandwiches. Sandwiches range from a New Orleans-inspired muffuletta with house-made olive tapenade to a meatball sub draped with provolone and 24-month aged Parmesan.
There are also prepared foods, like a chicory Caesar salad, roasted carrots with watercress, spatchcocked chicken, grilled bavette steak and prepackaged lasagnas, to bake at home. The meat counter is equipped with a dry-ager (and butchers will even dry-age special orders of meat for customers who ask). For now, the store is selling frozen pizzas from San Francisco favorite Del Popolo as the owners tinker with creating their own retail frozen pizzas.
The space is decorated with custom touches. A whimsical glass chandelier, complete with tiny hand-blown apples and pears, hangs over the entrance. The floor of the entryway is stamped with tiled depictions of fish, pigs and fruit. Above the deli, legs of prosciutto and whole cheeses dangle from the ceiling.
The market is part of a serious expansion push for the owners. After opening the first Che Fico to long lines in San Francisco in 2018, they added the more casual Che Fico Alimentari downstairs. Che Fico in Menlo Park marked their first push outside of San Francisco. They’re also opening a casual pizzeria at Thrive City near Chase Center in San Francisco and a yet-unnamed restaurant at a major development in Mission Rock.
Il Mercato di Che Fico. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. 1300-A El Camino Real, Menlo Park. ilmercatodichefico.com