TOSCA CAFE

This nearly 100-year-old bar exemplifies how the present can seamlessly embrace the past. It took two New Yorkers — April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman, who own the Spotted Pig and other restaurants in Manhattan — to bring this San Francisco landmark to life. Four years ago they opened the kitchen, which had been shuttered since 1953, and respectfully restored the dining room, including the familiar red-cushioned chairs and the mural filling one wall. Chef Josh Even moved here from New York and quickly embraced the California lifestyle, creating a stylized Italian menu that includes cauliflower fritto, a pristine salad with wild oregano vinaigrette and rigatoni with sage cream, chicken livers and balsamic vinegar. For large plates he roasts a whole chicken (which takes an hour to complete) and pork-shoulder steak with mustard potatoes and roasted spring onions. The original cappuccino machine still dominates the end of the always-crowded bar, but now the house concoction is made with Armagnac, bourbon, Dandelion chocolate and organic milk.

Cuisine Italian | Specialties Meatballs in red sauce; bucatini with tomato and guanciale; roast chicken for two with ricotta-pine nut stuffing and Marsala sauce; Red Sauce Dinner ($55), which includes Caesar salad, bucatini, braised pork shank with sausage and meatballs, and garlic knots | Seats 46 (plus 35 in lounge); private rooms for 10 and 20 | Prices $17-$29 (plus 5.25% S.F. surcharge) | Noise rating | Parking Street, difficult

Vitals 242 Columbus Ave., San Francisco. (415) 986-9651. www.toscacafesf.com Dinner until 1 a.m. nightly. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted.

The roasted chicken at Tosca, where the past and the present mix seamlessly.