In the early days after Flour+Water opened in 2009 in the Mission District, my friends would rave about their Neapolitan pizza, which got its own Flour+Water Pizzeria in 2019. But I knew from day one it was all about chef Thomas McNaughton’s pastas, who has worked at the likes of three Michelin-starred pasta temple, Quince.
In a country where every region is a food mecca, none may be more so than Italy’s Emilia-Romagna, centered by the city of Bologna. The region gave birth to crucial foods like prosciutto di Parma, balsamico, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and bolognese — it’s among the most unforgettable tastes and regions in my hundreds of global travels. McNaughton trained in Bologna and it shows in his pitch-perfect, handmade pastas with inspired, NorCal creativity. Chef/business partner Ryan Pollnow came on board in 2013 and the menu gained further nuance, with impressive credentials like two Michelin Mugaritz in Spain.
Last fall I reviewed Penny Roma, the newcomer from Flour+Water Hospitality Group, next door to Flour+Water Pasta Shop. As Penny Roma opened, the roughly 13-year-old Flour+Water (F+W from here on out) closed for an overdue remodel, just reopening in February 2022. Working with Lundberg Design, the rebirthed space is warmer, with dark wood separating the entrance from the dining room, an intimate bar, communal table and standing space up front, and a fish mural flanking the dining room under lamps that exude a soothing glow.
Before we dive into why, F+W, though Michelin-recommended, has evolved into the kind of place that should be among our many Michelin-starred greats, even as they’ve been nominated for everything from James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur to Rising Star Chef.
As we entered on a buzzy Friday night, my husband, Dan, and I found ourselves joking with the host, her sparkling personality and humor immediately confirming the conviviality of the fresh space. It felt like a Friday night in all the right ways, a night I typically try to avoid restaurants as someone who dines out most nights for work/research/pleasure.
Cozy at our table in view of the window into the kitchen, we opted for one $125 tasting menu to try a cross-section plus a la carte dishes not on the tasting menu. While F+W feels as casually buzzy as Penny Roma, their seasonal menu is more elegant, centered around a wide array of hand-made pastas prepared daily in their neighboring pasta shop, made with Italy-perfect technique, inspired by California creativity and impeccable local ingredients.
Wine pairings with the tasting menu are $65, while the wine menu from long-time Flour+Water Hospitality Group wine director Samuel Bogue is, like his Penny Roma menu, a streamlined list of five classic and five natural wines in every category: light, medium, and fuller reds to orange/amber, on to crisp and textured white wines.
Cheerful 80s vibes of Steve Winwood welcomed us as the soundtrack, bouncing around from the vibrant alt pop of Misun and Twin Shadow to the dance-y R&B fun of queen Chaka Khan. This set the playful mood for mini-savory cannoli filled with chive ricotta, dusted in a powder of onion tops and covered on each end with sustainable North American Caviar hackleback sturgeon caviar from Paris, TN. Creamy, briny, exquisite.
I had flashbacks to a restaurant in Bologna, dining on crudité and bagna cauda, when the tasting menu starter of winter pinzimonio arrived: Piedmontese-style vegetable crudité of little radishes, broccolini and other veggies over bagna rossa, a tomato, pepper, onion “dip” not unlike Middle Eastern muhammara. We began in the glass with sparkling Nicola Gatta Ombra Franciacorta (the Champagne of Italy) on to earthy, sparkling red 2020 La Collina Lambrusco Quaresimo from Emilia Romagna, the home of Lambrusco. Perfection.
As we moved on to amberjack crudo in blood orange vinaigrette, accented with taggiasca olive tapenade, lemon drop chilies, ogo seaweed and bronzed fennel, the clean but bold lines of the raw fish dish felt like a direct partner to the rich pastas to come, but also the palate cleanser beforehand.
However, two starters evoked sighs of happiness. First, mushroom arancini, oozing smoked treccione mozzarella cheese, dotted in pickled green garlic aioli and dusted with pine pollen. It’s gourmet Sicilian, the kind of bite I found on the more creative menus across Sicily. Second, a mini-bowl of black truffle sformato was ridiculously good, like a layered savory pudding. When you scoop up all layers of thyme-potato crumble, parmigiano fonduta and sweet-acidic balsamico, the overwhelming urge hits to lick up every drop.
Though I can’t exaggerate the glories of those two bites, we haven’t even gotten to pasta yet. Hot damn. These handmade joys are among the best in a city rife with pasta masters, like Quince, Acquerello, SPQR, Perbacco and Sorrel. Range and ingenuity are but a couple reasons F+W’s more in-depth-than-ever pastas are so exciting (there are two pizzas — I want to try the ‘nduja pizza — but I think that focus is rightly left to Flour+Water Pizzeria).
Whether chanterelle and trumpet mushrooms chestnut funghetti, veal sausage-charred cabbage-anchovy-chili orecchiette or tender veal agnolotti verde in a celery root soffrito broth, blessedly dusted with fresh horseradish, each are a lesson in pasta mastery. But I haven’t named the bests yet.
The pure “simplicity” of flavor in classic tortellini en brodo (in broth) is one of my favorite tastes of my Emilia-Romagna travels. Here, it is just as in Italy, the purity of the straightforward, delicate dumplings in broth recalling Japanese minimalism aesthetic and precision, an ultimate comfort food. Rare, unique saffron corzetti look like medallions or coins, brilliant in a vibrant sauce of Dungeness crab meat, braised gold beets, preserved blood oranges, Calabrian chilies and crab butter.
Move to the unique pasta dough of cocoa and rutabaga casoncelli, filled with crescenza cheese under thinly shaved sunchokes, toasted sunflower seeds and decadent sage brown butter. Yes, please. Smoked duck and Swiss chard ravioli wows in a zippy pomegranate mostarda, transporting me to Austria or Germany with its mustard-laced smoked meat, but also tasting like Northern Italy’s incomparable Tyrolean, Alto Adige, German-Italian regions I adore so. This was amplified by a glass of red 2020 Gumphof Schiava Mediaevum from Trentino-Alto Adige, with its fascinating violet, rose, floral notes.
Maybe the most exciting pasta? Vegetable-based turmeric and beet corone filled with ricotta, bright like California winters with preserved blood orange, kumquat, evoking Sicily with a generous, crunchy pistachio base laced with curried calçots (Catalan green onions).
But, taleggio scarpinocc pasta filled with taleggio cheese almost stole the show, exemplifying Emilia-Romagna on one plate. Real, incomparable Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and thick, sweet, acidic aceto balsamico vinegar is so superb, over pitch-perfect pasta its almost unfair. What could compete with such perfection? Dan and I agreed we could order just this and walk away blissful. Yet it was only one of many memorable courses, proving with renewed energy why Pollnow and McNaughton are among SF’s great pasta masters — a city that holds among the very best in the nation.
While wine pairings run from classic Italian to the best of California, balanced natural wines are among the most exciting, whether the amber acidity of 2020 Cantina Giardino “Na” Field Blend orange wine from Campania, Italy, or the beautiful balance of 2020 Koehnen skin contact Sauvignon Blanc from nearby Lake County’s Luchsinger Vineyard.
We didn’t have one bummer dish, even as we had our faves. But it’s time for dessert. Earthy, espresso-laden chocolate budino with espresso whipped cream was fine-tuned with sea salt, so lush and deep it reminded me of when I first had Foreign Cinema’s chocolate pot de creme 21 years ago, proceeding to eat pot de creme so often I got burnt out on it.
But let’s make no bones about it: dessert kudos belong to Parmigiano-Reggiano gelato made from parmesan rinds. Fuhgeddaboudit. Silky, creamy, nutty, savory, the gelato alone is ecstasy. Then it’s drizzled in extra-vecchio (extra old) aceto balsamico and candied hazelnuts and it turns downright orgasmic. Yet another tribute to the great Emilia-Romagna in one bowl. Paired with the balanced bitter-sweet of Cantina Furlani Amaro, it’s enough to make me want to sing into the night… and book my return to Italia. Thank God we have a slice of the region — but with forward-thinking San Francisco vision and ingredients — in the new Flour+Water.
// 2401 Harrison Street; www.flourandwater.com
