Nate Appleman is my kind of chef. He’s incredibly talented. He and Wine Director Shelley Lindgren already own A16, a rock-solid Marina district Italian restaurant. More important, he’s supremely committed to pork products. The heavily tattooed chef handcrafts salumi, making sure no hog morsel goes to waste. In April, Chef Ben Ford invited Appleman to Los Angeles to participate in a “head to tail” eating event at Ford’s Filling Station. Sadly, I was unable to attend. Happily, my family helped me make amends at SPQR, Appleman and Lindgren’s latest San Francisco venture.

Appleman named his Fillmore restaurant for the historic Latin phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus (”The Senate and the Roman People”), which appears on manhole covers in Rome. According to our waitress, Emily F., Chris Behr is Nate Appleman’s #2 in command, heading SPQR’s kitchen on a full-time basis. The menu changes daily. The space is fairly plain, with vintage Italian posters on the walls. There are no reservations, so arrive early.

We started with a bottle of 2003 Romeo Colli Piacentini, which had some decent spice.

Antipasti ($8 each or $21 for 3) are grouped under the headings Cold, Hot and Fried.

Fried Cauliflower looked dry because it was brown, but the florets remained moist with help from olive oil. To complete the flavor profile, the chunks were tossed with garlic chips, parsley, capers and lemon juice.

Wild arugula salad contained slivers of sweet black Mission figs, peaches and red onion, croutons and whisps of ricotta salata.

The house-made pork sausage patty was succulent, browned on the grill and ultra-juicy, plated with a “salsa” of sweet roasted corn kernels, cuts of green tomato and crunchy radish.

Fried Local sardines came with chunky mashed tondani beans (similar to white beans), cucumbers and pickled onions. The sardines contained bones, but they were whisper thin, and didn’t impede swallowing. A squeeze of lemon helped cut the sardines’ oceanic tang.

Emily said we should order at least one dish from each category, but we took her recommendations and doubled or tripled them. Our first Antipasti Grande - Lamb cacciatore ($18) - was basically juicy browned chunks of lamb tossed with rosemary, garlic and white wine. This dish was recently lauded in the Bon Appetit Restaurant Issue, for good reason.

Heritage pork porterhouse ($19) was plated with frisee, hazelnuts and lemon. Emily revealed that the pig was fed up to 2.5 pounds of plums per day, imparting a sweet flavor to the browned bone-in chop.

It was no surprise that each pasta was made in-house. We started with Cannelloni ($15) of beef sausage, ricotta, kale and pecorino. This was basically like Italian enchiladas, only with pasta sheets instead of tortillas. The sauce was vivid, naturally sweet.

Rigatoni Amatriciana ($14) was tossed with guanciale (cuts of pork jowl, similar to bacon), tomatoes, red onions, pecorino and chilies. The sauce was spicy due to the chilies, and the pasta was perfectly cooked.

Riso budino with apricots and pistachios ($7.50) was basically a terrific rice pudding, a little creamy, made with the precision of a fine risotto. There were crunchy chunks of crumbled pistachio biscotti, which added to the texture.

Honey granita with blackberries, candied fennel and ricotta ($7.50) was our second dessert. The tangy ricotta and tart blackberries paired well with the sweet granita. I could have done without the candied fennel, which didn’t quite reach “candied” status.

Chocolate panna cotta with cocoa nibs and cherries ($7.50) was incredible, bittersweet chocolate pudding with explosively sweet cherries and tart cocoa nibs.

Appleman is a busy man who isn’t satisfied with two top-flight Italian restaurants. According to Emily, he’s 6-8 months away from opening Urbano, which will be located in the Dogpatch neighborhood, near Potrero Hill. There’s little doubt that it will be crowded from day one, and there’s even less doubt that I’ll eat there as soon as possible.

Related Posts

1. SPQR Lunch – San Francisco, CA - July 4, 2009
2. COCO500 – San Francisco, CA – Monday, August 4, 2008
3. Flour + Water – San Francisco, CA – August 9, 2009
4. San Tung – San Francisco, CA – Sunday, August 3, 2008
5. A16 - San Francisco, CA - Thursday, August 2, 2007

This entry is filed under California, Italian, Northern California, San Francisco.