potrero view
Photograph by Birgitte Gilliland

Photograph by Birgitte Gilliland

Zuppa’s pork and pecorino sausage arrives sizzling hot in its own cast iron skillet.

March 2010

Zuppa: Worth the Parking Hassel

By Birgitte Gilliland

Venturing South-of-Market (SOMA) for a meal is challenging for some of us.  There’s parking to be negotiated.  The specialty cocktail menus often arrive in a bound leather file.  The meal tab can be intimidating, and decidedly un-family friendly.  And then there’s the whole wardrobe issue.  One feels compelled to make more of an aesthetic effort because so many others dining in the neighborhood do so.

Zuppa has its flaws, but it remains one of SOMA’s better dining establishments for a casual, reasonably priced, satisfying meal.  Once you’ve won the municipal parking spot lottery, step inside this gray, high-ceilinged, industrial space and note the wood-burning oven’s comforting fire glowing in the corner.   Your psychic powers tell you that the pizza is going to be good.   

Zuppa sources its produce from local organic growers, like Capay Farms and Maraquita Farms, and features their seasonal bounty on pizzas, in pastas and on their antipasti platter.  The made-to-order pizzas are thin, crisp yet slightly chewy; the perfect vehicle for either the margherita edition ($11 at lunch; $7 during happy hour; $14 after 7 p.m.), or for more inspired toppings like romanesco cauliflower, green garlic and spicy coppa ($11 at lunch; $15 at dinner). The house-made pastas are also quite good.   Zuppa’s kitchen cuts the widest papardelle imaginable, and serves it with fingerling potatoes and a basil pesto sauce ($10 at lunch).  When I finished the dish, there was no separated pool of greasy pesto sauce guiltily staring back at me, a too frequent occurrence at lesser restaurants.   On a recent night, the rigatoni was perfectly cooked and accompanied by a plentiful, chunky pork ragu ($10 during happy hour; $16 after 7 p.m.).  

I’m a sucker for pastas that aren’t perfect in shape or uniform in appearance.  Unless you’re paying Thomas Keller’s prices, I believe that pasta billed as “homemade” should look like something your make believe Italian grandmother created earlier that day.   Zuppa’s rigatoni seduced at once, because it was perfectly imperfect: each tube was a different length and just slightly varying in width.  

If it’s meat you crave, order the bone-in pork chop ($13 at lunch; $20 at dinner).  The two versions I tried were both tender and tasty.   The lunch version was roasted, set atop creamy polenta and served with red pepper squares, caramelized onions and greens.  The dinner version was expertly grilled and accompanied by a lemon thyme risotto and mustard fruits.

Dining at Zuppa, however, can be a perplexingly inconsistent endeavor.  Why can’t the same wood-burning oven that’s used for creating such lovely pizzas produce an edible bread basket?   If the kitchen can roast beets to bring out all of their sweet and subtle earthy flavors, why can’t it replicate that success with the red pimiento peppers or the fennel?   How can the same talent that produces such winning pastas serve “house made” mozzarella that tastes like bland rubber?   The mozzarella is available on its own or as part of the above mentioned antipasto platter ($11), which sounds like a promising, all-inclusive starter choice.   It’s not.   You would fare better ordering the beets separately at $3.30 a serving.

Depending on the day and time you dine at Zuppa, the service can be perfunctory and the overhead HVAC system may persistently intrude upon your conversation.   Zuppa’s desserts are not particularly imaginative: their inclusion on the menu feels obligatory.  

That said, I enjoyed my most recent experience at Zuppa.  My husband and I brought our two kids for dinner at 6 p.m. to take advantage of happy hour prices.  We feasted on piping hot flat bread with rosemary and garlic; pork and pecorino sausage served sizzling in a petite iron skillet; margherita pizza and two rigatoni pastas.  The service was efficient and kid-friendly. The total damage was $60, including gratuity and two happy hour beers.  

Zuppa offers an affordable Italian meal in a relaxed, attitude-free setting.  May the parking gods smile upon you.

 

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