Does anyone recall a time when Tommaso’s wasn’t serving Italian food in North Beach? If so, it's a vague memory. The family restaurant has been pumping out pizzas from its first-of-its-kind wood-burning pizza oven for 80 years.
The Neapolitan Cantalupo family was able to open the pizzeria they called Lupo’s in the height of the Depression in 1935. They installed the vast brick oven to make their pizzas, virtually introducing the delicacy to San Francisco.
Pizza caught on fast, but the wood-burning oven took decades to become trendy. Lupo’s became a favorite dining spot for neighborhood families, but also Hollywood types like Bob Hope and the Marx Brothers, who made pilgrimages up from Hollywood, which was somewhat of a food desert then. A diner could buy a pizza for $2.50, a fish dinner for $1.25 and lasagne for $1.60 at Lupo's. When the family sold the restaurant to Tommy Chin, he renamed the restaurant after himself—but with an Italian twist. Thus, “Tommaso’s.”
The Crotti family had come to San Francisco in 1969 from near Lake Como on the Italian-Swiss border, joining family members already living here. By 1973 the family purchased Tommaso’s, keeping the name. They retained the hand-painted murals of Neapolitan scenes and continued the Neapolitan menu, but removed old-fashioned dishes like kidneys and canned tuna pizza and added some Northern Italian dishes of their own.
The children of that family are still running the place today. Lidia is the executive chef, brother Agostino makes the pizza dough, shops, suggests wine, and helps guests, his wife Anna makes the desserts, and sister Carmen sees that everything is running smoothly.
Tommaso’s was once just one egg in the nest of restaurants in the area. Swiss Louis, Enrico’s, Vanessi’s, and a cluster of Basque restaurants made the Broadway-Columbus area a dining destination for locals and tourists alike.
“In the old days all the restaurants used to help each other out borrowing lemons or bread from each other if we ran out,” Carmen Crotti tells us while tossing some kindling into the roaring pizza oven. “Vanessi’s stayed open late, so after Tommaso’s closed for the evening we’d walk up the street to eat there.”
As the Beatnik scene came and faded, through jazz clubs and comedy spots, when strip clubs covered the area, through disco days and punk rock nights, Tommaso’s thrived. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and columnist Herb Caen dined there frequently.
“After all the other old-time restaurants shut down, the area went downhill for a few years. It could be scary walking to your car,” says Carmen. “But all that’s over. There’s Devil’s Acre, the cafes Réveille and The Station, Naked Lunch in the old Enrico’s. People ask aren’t we worried about the competition. No! Not at all. It's good for us. People have a drink one place, then come for dinner, then go someplace else for an after-dinner drink. We’re all good for each other.“
This September, to celebrate their 80th year in business, the Crotti family asked members of the Cantalupo family to join them for a celebratory bash. Eighty members of both families exchanged memories and laughs.
In October, Tommaso’s continues their annual Mushroomfest. In alpine Italy, the Crotti family used to enjoy gathering mushrooms each fall. At Tommaso’s, they pay tribute to the tradition by using porcini, portobello, champignon, and button mushrooms (and chanterelles if available) for their specials from appetizers to main dishes. Time's running out—get them while you can.
“One year Lidia tired of making our labor-intensive mushroom lasagne, so she removed it from the menu. She received a letter of complaint signed by many regular customers. It’s been back on the menu ever since,” laughs Carmen.
These days, Bay Area families who have been coming to Tommaso’s for decades still bring their children and grandchildren, FiDi people stop in after work, and North Beach residents and tourists enjoy the family atmosphere.
To help observe the big anniversary, Tommaso’s is hosting a monthly photo contest of guests’ dining memories over the last eight decades. If you've frequented the restaurant, you can share your “#TommasosMemories” with photos or video, along with a story, on Tommaso’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages. The contest will continue until September 2016.
