Go Where The Pros Go

Download the F.E.D. iPhone app and get many more San Francisco recommendations from chefs, bartenders, sommeliers, and food artisans.

F.E.D. Photos | Instagram

Check more photos and follow us on Instagram at FindEatDrink.

Tosca Café

“There are a couple of must-visit places in every city and Tosca was just a place you had to go to late at night,” says New York restaurateur Ken Friedman. “You’d walk in and there’d be opera blaring on the jukebox and it was really dark with these great leather booths. I just loved it.”

Friedman loved this nearly one hundred year old landmark so much that when it became available, he and business partner, chef April Bloomfield, jumped at the chance to breathe new life into its faded glory. “We did find out that the booths weren’t really leather. Now they’re real leather.” After taking over the lease from owner, Jeannette Etheredge, re-upholstering the booths was just a tiny fraction of the 1.5 million dollars Friedman and Bloomfield spent to restore the legendary Tosca.

Even the jukebox got a facelift, a few tweaks and some new tunes. “We don’t play 100 percent opera,” says Ken. “They didn’t either. There was some older stuff like Jackson Brown and Neil Young. We’ve got a music system so that when someone uses the jukebox (which is now free, it was 25 cents) and they put on an opera song, it overrides the sound system and plays it.”

The House Cappuccino

San Francisco’s third-oldest bar opened in North Beach in 1919 by three Italians returning from war who wanted an authentic taste of their home country. Prohibition hit and they needed a way to stay in business. They imported espresso machines from Italy and made a signature drink they called their House Cappuccino. “The House Cappuccino was like a nudge-nudge-wink-wink,” explains Friedman. “There was no coffee in it and it was basically hot chocolate with brandy, a lot of brandy.” The House Cappuccino remains on the menu today, but with a 2014 upgrade. The drink is now made with Marie Duffau Bas Armagnac, Buffalo Trace Bourbon, local artisan chocolate from San Francisco’s Dandelion Chocolate and organic milk.

The Back Room

In 1980, Jeannette Etheredge bought Tosca from second-generation owner Al Landi. It wasn’t about the food (there was none) or the drinks, Friedman says it was about the back room. “It was very much the Elaine’s of San Francisco, but with more politicians. It had a back room where all the local celebs like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Baryshnikov would hang out. Jerry Brown had pretty much every birthday party here and Willie Brown, the ex-mayor, liked to hold court.”

Chef Josh Even, who is Friedman’s and Bloomfield’s partner in the restaurant, first came here in 2002. “Jeannette has all these stories about Sean Penn and Hunter S. Thompson and Bono standing on top of the bar singing along with the jukebox. Further back, all the beats came through here, like Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Gary Snyder and William S. Burroughs.”

But a legal dispute between Jeannette and the building’s landlord meant the cafe was going to close. Sean Penn contacted Friedman, “Sean is a buddy of mine and he was a regular. He sent me a text and said Jeannette’s getting evicted from Tosca.” Friedman and Bloomfield made a deal directly with Jeannette to take over her lease in an amicable way and she still drops by Tosca to entertain her famous friends.

Now Serving...

Tosca’s kitchen hadn’t served a plate of food since the 1960s, which left a blank canvas for chefs April Bloomfield and Josh Even. “The main thing we wanted to do was bring the kitchen back to life, to get the heart beating again,” says Bloomfield. “It’s fun to see people cooking in the thick of it. I suppose it’s a bit of theater.”

The menu features the cuisine from different regions around Italy, explains Even, who runs the day-to-day at the restaurant. “It screams Italian. It was opened and owned by three Italian brothers. Tosca is an Italian opera and there are murals of Venice on the walls and the opera itself and different cities in Italy. Plus, it’s located in North Beach. I think putting some other kind of food in here would have felt a bit contrived and forced.”

What To Order

Meatball Special

Definitely the meatballs,” recommends Even, who has worked with Bloomfield for the past eight years. “We worked really hard to make a meatball that was going to be special, but not so challenging that you feel like you’re not having an Italian-American meatball.”

Roasted Chicken For Two

“I love the chicken. We’re roasting it whole and we season ricotta with sage and olive oil and lemon and we stuff it inside the bird. When the bird comes out of the oven we pull the stuffing out. We actually let the chicken rest on a piece of bread so all those juices flow into the bread and then we grill the piece of bread and smear the ricotta over the toast. It’s really delicious, super chicken-y, super flavorful.”

Grilled Polenta

“We do a really nice grilled polenta with mushrooms and mascarpone. It’s kind of the sleeper hit on the menu. People don’t think to order it, but when they do they’re like, ‘wow I can’t believe how delicious this is. I had no idea.  I’ll always order this now.’ It’s very inspired by The River Café, which was one of the kitchens where April worked in Europe.”

Next Door | The Lusty Lady

Friedman and Bloomfield have taken over a former strip club next to Tosca called The Lusty Lady. “It was this iconic, legendary peepshow club,” says Friedman. “It was a co-op. All the girls who danced there were the owners of it. We’re going to make it a cool bar. We don’t take reservations, so when there is a two hour wait, instead of losing people, they can walk over to our bar next door, have a couple of drinks and we’ll come get them when the table’s ready.”

Old School San Francisco

Discover old school San Francisco with these recommendations from chef April Bloomfield, chef Josh Even and restaurateur Ken Friedman.

City Lights Bookstore

Located across the street from Tosca, this landmark bookshop opened in 1953. It’s recommended by Josh Even for its history presenting beat poets. “You get to see all of their work and a lot of it is published by City Lights itself. You can sit down and read and get lost in how things used to be. It has an excitement about it because of this collection of geniuses.”

261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133

T: 415.362.8193 | www.citylights.com

The Ferry Building Market

Opened in the 1898, this was the entry point for people arriving from the East. The building has gone through an extensive preservation project and now is filled with food shops and restaurants. Three times a week, there’s a large farmers market with produce and prepared foods. April Bloomfield shops here for Tosca, calling it “a great local source.”

1 Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco, CA 94111

T: 415.291.3276 | www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

Balboa Cafe

“It's been here for about a hundred years and is phenomenal.” Opened in 1913, this is one of the oldest bars in San Francisco. Ken Friedman comes here for the pub grub. “They have terrific burgers, a BLT, sandwiches and salads. It’s not fancy or elevated, it’s just really solid. It is very much a bar and a restaurant. There is this great long bar that you can sit at by yourself and read the paper or people watch.”

3199 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
T: 415.921.3944 | www.balboacafe.com

Tadich Grill

“This is part of the San Francisco tradition,” says Josh Even. Opened for over 160 years, it is said to be the third continuously run restaurant in the country. “The Crab Louis and the Cioppino are two dishes I really enjoy.”

240 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94111

T: 415.391.1849 | www.tadichgrill.com

Buena Vista Café

Ken Friedman recommends this classic and quintessential San Francisco saloon, which is credited with bringing the Irish coffee to the United States in the 1950s.

2765 Hyde Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

T: 415.474.5044 | www.thebuenavista.com

Caffe Trieste

This Italian coffeehouse opened in 1956 and it’s said this is where Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay for the Godfather. Ken Friedman likes to come here in the mornings. “This a great place where you’ll find people that are completely out of their minds in a very kind of San Francisco North Beach beat poet kind of way and half of them are Nobel Prize winning poets and authors, the ones talking to themselves. That’s really fun.”

601 Vallejo Street, San Francisco, CA 94133

T: 415.982.2605 | www.caffetrieste.com

Vesuvio Cafe

Legendary beat hang out known for their Bohemian Coffee with brandy, amaretto and a twist of lemon. It’s Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg all drank. “It’s definitely a different clientele now,” says Josh Even, with more beer on tap. But it’s fun to be in the same seat that I’ve read about all my heroes being a part of .”

255 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133

T: 415.362.3370 | www.vesuvio.com

Restaurateur Ken

Friedman

Chef Josh

Even

Chef April

Bloomfield

Chef and co-owner of The Spotted Pig, The Breslin, The John Dory, and Salvation Taco in New York and Tosca Cafe in San Francisco. Originally from England, she worked at The River Café in London and still cites the experience as a major influence in her cooking.

Co-owner of The Spotted Pig, The Breslin, The John Dory, and Salvation Taco in New York and Tosca Cafe in San Francisco. Friedman came to the food world via the music industry, where he was a concert promoter working with legendary Bill Graham.

Chef and partner at Tosca in San Francisco. He began his career at The Laundry in East Hampton, Long Island. He soon joined The Spotted Pig working as a line cook for chef April Bloomfield. He worked his way up to chef de cuisine at The John Dory, followed by The Breslin.