A tiny bar with a hefty amount of classy Italian flare is about to open inside the hit Inner Sunset restaurant Fiorella on 9th Avenue. Nonnina is located on the top level of the restaurant, and has an inconspicuous entrance that you get to by walking through the dining and kitchen areas, through an unmarked door, and through a discreet hallway. Once you arrive in the dimly lit space that only has space for 14-patrons, you’ll be welcomed to a fireplace, two tables, and a standing-room-only bar that serves an ambitious lineup of craft cocktails and some very hearty bar food.
Fiorella owner Boris Nemchenok described Nonnina’s atmosphere to the SF Chronicle as “your grandma’s elevated dining room,” with grandmother-like touches including midcentury glassware and a music selection that is entirely Italian. However, the cocktails from bar director Dylan Henry have a much more modern pace with ingredients that are almost exclusively Italian. Many of them are purple in color as a way to pay homage to an Italian festival that honors grandparents called ‘La Festa Dei Nonni.’
Photo Credit: @barnonnina/Instagram
Some of the selections include a unique version of a white negroni called Galileo’s Gaze which has strawberry-infused gin and is served with a large purple ice sphere made from butterfly pea flower tea. For those who like a martini, there is the Colapesce which contains olives smoked below in the kitchen of Fiorella. As for Nonnina’s food menu, you can grab a seafood salad for $14, ricotta tortellini for $20, spring onion focaccia for $12, or a potato croquette for $10, among several other choices including one featuring rib-eye steak. You can also try a small tasting menu with three food items and three drinks for $75.
Photo Credit: @barnonnina/Instagram
Only four walk-in customers will be allowed inside Nonnina’s cozy space at one time, and the other 10 customers will have to make reservations through Tock which requires a deposit of $15 per person. “In the Sunset, there’s not really anything that has this kind of vibe,” Nemchenok told the SF Chronicle. You can check Nonnina out for yourself starting on May 18th.
