Five years ago, on September 22nd, 2010, Sharon Ardiana opened Ragazza in the old Metro Cafe space. The popular pizza spot, which also serves salads, entrees, and more, is Ardiana's second restaurant. Her first, Gialina, debuted in January 2007 in Glen Park, and offers similar fare.
Ardiana is intimately involved in the workings of her restaurants: when we visited her at the restaurant, she was testing out a special pizza with some Bronx grapes that had just come in. As we set up for the interview, she took the pizza out of the oven, tasted it, and declared it good enough to make the evening's menu.
While Ragazza's staff set up for dinner, we sat down with Ardiana to discuss coming to Divisadero, the famous gazebo, conceptualizing new pies, and more.
What inspired you to open Ragazza on Divisadero?
“My general theory is that every neighborhood can use a nice, moderately-priced place that you can come to a couple times a week. That’s what I wanted to build over here. I wanted a place where neighbors can come in a couple days a week—a place that’s family-friendly.
I also didn’t want anything too close to my first restaurant, Gialina, in Glen Park. I knew that I wanted to do a second restaurant, but I didn’t want to cannibalize that one, and I knew that a lot of people live on this side of the city.
And I really wanted to be in this neighborhood. It’s a good place to be. I’m happy that I’m kind of on the outskirts of everything. It’s not down there by Nopa, in the middle of all of it, which is more of a vortex and a little crazier; I like the quiet edge over here. It’s a great location. It has families. Parking may be a little bit tight, but overall it’s great.”
What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen on Divisadero since you moved in five years ago?
“More traffic and increasing crime. But everything goes through that flux. For example, in years two and three, we saw an influx in crime and that was really hard. This tends to happen when neighborhoods grow so rapidly. It’s the tale of the city right now. Also, a lot of businesses are being pushed out and others are replacing them. I love the city, but I don’t like some of the ways it’s going. I hope there’s a leveling off.
I do feel blessed, because I have a 20 year lease. So hopefully, I’ll be here another 15 years. The Metro Hotel is my landlord, and the owner, Ellen, is amazing. We have a really good relationship. The challenge is that the market is getting more and more saturated. I hear there’s another rustic Italian place going up in the old auto garage next to Little Star Pizza, and they're going to do pizza.
But, you know, I do what I do and I hope people like it. I hope they come to it and see a value in it. I want people to walk out the door and say, ‘That was really good. I want to come back.’ There’s a good vibe, good music, good food, and good service here. This place is nice. I love it. But it’s hard, because so many people are opening restaurants now. I’ve been cooking for 35 years and I’ve been in the business a long time. It used to be hard to actually open a restaurant, but now it seems like everyone’s dream is to open a restaurant.”
Tell us more about the gazebo out back.
“One of the reasons I wanted this space was because I wanted to be in this corridor, but I also wanted it because of the garden out back. When I walked up to the back and hit that top step, it took my breath away. It's so beautiful and so unexpected, and you just don’t have too many of these kinds of beautiful lush gardens that are hidden.
"People love it, and they love the lights back there. When we got the place, the patio wasn’t permitted for food or drink, so we had to go through the permitting process, which takes a a long time. It took a full year of permitting to get it and another year to get the proper heating system and everything else in order. They key now is to keep people cozy and warm in that space. It’s now well-lit, and there are no bugs, because it’s enclosed. The downside is that it's sometimes hard to get people off the patio by 10pm—some people don’t realize they are too loud.”
What are your most popular menu items?
"It depends on what the farms are doing. But we have a kale salad we love to do, with green goddess dressing. Since kale isn’t too abundant during the summertime, we use little gems instead. Right now, the little gems are drying up, so we'll be going back to kale soon. But that salad is one of those things I can never take off the menu. It’s really good, and people love it.
As far as pizza, it depends upon the day. I personally think the Bianca pizza is one of the best ones here. The Moto does well. Those two are the biggest ones. Some pizzas don’t change, but we also create pizzas around the seasons. Right now, we have an heirloom tomato pizza, which is kind of like a BLT.
We also have a corn one with peppers that are coming on now. Figs are nice right now, so we have another one that's called Miss Figgy; it has figs and pork belly on it. Today, we got all these beautiful grapes in, so we made a pizza with them, along with some fontina, goat cheese, and caramelized onions.
We also sell a lot of meatballs and chicken breast. It's amazing how much chicken we go through. People definitely like our entrees, in addition to the pizzas and salads."
Tell us about your childhood. Were you always interested in cooking for a living?
"I grew up outside of Pittsburgh. My family had this huge victory garden, where they grew their own vegetables. We always had our own tomatoes and peppers and corn and all kinds of fruit trees. We had a plot behind the house, so we had Italian prune plums, fig trees, asparagus, all these little things. Strawberry bushes and lettuces. I went to college to teach, but one of my friends suggested that I go to cooking school in Philly. After that, I moved out to San Francisco in 1989, six months before the earthquake.
I’ve worked for a lot of great people in the city, and finally got the nerve to open my own place in 2007 with Gialina. It was on January 22nd, so 22 is a good number for me. Three years later, I figured I should do another one while I can, and luckily this all came into play."
Are you doing anything special for your anniversary?
“We have a wine special going on this month, and we will probably do something special on our actual birthday, which is September 22nd. Since it’s our fifth year, it’s a big one. We will announce something that day."
