Slice of culinary history gains S.F. legacy status
Tommaso’s, famed for pizza, dates back to 1935
Rose Pistola. Pantarei. L’Osteria del Forno.
A number of notable North Beach restaurants and cafes closed this year, a further sign that many of San Francisco’s older establishments are struggling with rising costs and shrinking margins.
But Tommaso’s Ristorante Italiano, which dates back to 1935, is getting a helping hand. It’s the newest restaurant to join San Francisco’s legacy business registry, a city initiative approved by voters in November 2015 to aid businesses and nonprofits. Companies on the registry become eligible for yearly grants — $500 per full-time employee — and property owners who provide the businesses with 10-year or longer leases can receive rent stabilization grants.
Currently, 142 businesses are on the registry. Places that have been open for at least 30 years and have contributed to their neighborhood’s history can apply, and they must maintain the look or traditions that have come to define them.
Tommaso’s, a North Beach pizzeria at 1042 Kearny St., was originally named Lupo’s. It was founded by the Cantolupo family, who came to California from Naples. They brought pizza and other Neapolitan dishes to their restaurant, as well as what is believed to be the first wood-burning pizza oven on the West Coast. Today, wood-burning pizza ovens are commonplace in California, and many restaurants within several blocks of Tommaso’s feature them, such Il Casaro and Cotogna.
In 1971, the Cantolupo family sold the restaurant to its chef, Tommy Chin, who had been working there for 35 years. He renamed the restaurant after himself: Tommaso’s. Two years later, Chin sold to the Crotti family, which still owns it today.
Over the years, Tommaso’s has remained relatively unchanged, though it has racked up both critical acclaim and celebrity customers. In a 1989 Chronicle column, Herb Caen remarked on Francis Ford Coppola and Jerry Brown sightings there, in addition to an endorsement of his own: “For the benefit of latecomers, Tommaso's still makes the best classical pizza in town — a real achievement after 50 years of distinguished heartburn.”
Margi Crotti Rudnick, a third-generation member of the Crotti family who serves in a managerial capacity with the restaurant, was the one who applied for Tommaso’s legacy status.
“The whole reason I applied for this wasn’t because of the money,” she said. “I just felt like the family deserved this. Not many businesses have stayed around as long as we have.”