A pizza to lust after at Ardiana in Noe Valley
If you sit at the counter at Sharon Ardiana’s new eponymous pizza restaurant and watch her work, it becomes obvious that cooking is an arduous job.
In this Noe Valley spot — her third and most ambitious restaurant — Ardiana stands at her narrow station facing the counter with the pizza oven just a few feet behind her. A co-worker next to her is in charge of the pizza oven, and each time the door opens and closes it looks like it nearly scapes Ardiana’s backside.
She takes a mound of preportioned dough, pats it with her fingers, and then stretches it into a circle by placing it on her fists and pulling with her arms. She places the disk on a floured paddle, and adds sauce and various toppings laid out in front of her. As soon as it goes into the oven, she starts over. In between pizza orders she plates appetizers and finishes the main courses.
It’s nonstop, repetitive work, but every once in a while she pauses, lowers her head slightly and surveys what’s around her in the kitchen with the look of a mother observing a sleeping child.
To be able to do this job requires something many people don’t have: loads of stamina, patience and a deep love for feeding people.
Pizza, for all its seeming simplicity, is one of the hardest items to pull off, yet Ardiana does it at all three of her places: Gialina, Ragazza and now Ardiana.
Ardiana has mastered the type of crust I lust for: It’s thin and crisp and doesn’t completely collapse when picked up. The dough has a pastry-like quality, and toppings are judiciously applied so they don’t overpower the crust.
Observing the kitchen action, I discovered another secret. After each pie comes out of the oven blistered and steaming, it gets a golden drizzle of olive oil around the edge of the crust.
I’ve always loved Ardiana’s pizza, first at Gialina in Glen Park and then at Ragazza on Divisadero. At the Noe location, Ardiana expands her tried-andtrue format and offers a larger menu. This includes spreads ($7) — roasted eggplant, carrot hummus, and smashed avocado with Meyer lemon and Aleppo pepper — served with housemade pita; a half dozen salads; and five large plates.
The large plates feature a satisfying oven-roasted halibut ($26) with a generous dollop of herbed aioli tumbling down the side. It’s served on a cool mound of butter beans, roasted mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Overall, the main courses are so generous they can serve two or three, especially if a pizza is included in the order, which is practically a given.
The most impressive large plate, at least in size, is the 1pound short rib ($38) rubbed with coffee and brown sugar and glazed with plum chutney. It sits atop mashed potatoes surrounded by broccoli di ciccio. No doubt this preparation channels Ardiana’s Italian grandmother, who is memorialized along with other members of her family on the poster-size photos that decorate the diningroom walls.
The pan-roasted Mary’s chicken ($23) is practically as generously portioned as the short rib, placed on a bed of stewed tomatoes and chickpeas with Padrón peppers, with a cooling cucumber salad and tahini yogurt.
Excellent as these are, I can’t resist the pizza.
My favorite ($22) is topped with tomatoes, bacon, mozzarella, basil, and a leafy layer of wild arugula added after the pizza emerges from the oven. Other toppings include burrata, squash blossoms, preserved lemon and shaved garlic ($24). I was a bit disappointed with the pizza topped with prosciutto, mozzarella, chiles and arugula because the tomato sauce was too sweet and the toppings were so generously applied the crust went limp. Fortunately, that’s the exception rather than the rule.
Ardiana is equally known for her generous salads, and the Little Gem with Green Goddess ($12) shows why. On one visit it was tossed with quartered slices of watermelon radish, cubes of avocado and cherry tomato halves; on another the tomatoes were replaced with ruby grapefruit. Another standout dish puts together heirloom tomatoes with brown butter, lemon verbena, shiso and sea salt ($14).
On the last visit, the menu included an appetizer of pasta, a
staple at her other restaurants. The wild nettle fettuccine ($14) was glazed with nasturtium butter and topped with grated Parmesan. It gave me another explanation of why her other places are so popular.
Ardiana also proves her mastery of desserts with an olive oil cake ($8) that is as light as genoise, served with a thick scoop of whipped mascarpone and slices of fruit. She also makes one of the best tiramisu around. And if you want just a little sweet bite consider the ice cream sandwich ($3) with crisp chocolate cookies and Bi-Rite’s mint chocolate-chip ice cream.
It was clear on my first visit a month after she opened that Ardiana had been embraced by the neighborhood even more ardently than the previous tenant, La Nebbia, owned by Massimilano Conti and Lorella Degan, who have La Ciccia around the corner.
On each subsequent visit there was an even longer line of people who didn’t make a reservation but were hoping to nab a seat. They waited patiently, often with a glass of wine, for someone to vacate the table or counter. With its close-together tables and dining counters enclosing both the kitchen and bar, the restaurant provides a modest but comfortable environment that speaks to the neighborhood.
It’s clear that Ardiana and her front-of-the-house partner, Greg Hinds, have created a place that feels as familial as the photos on the wall. Michael Bauer is The San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic and editor at large. E-mail: mbauer@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michaelbauer1 Instagram: @michaelbauer1