In our latest dining column, Eat Here Now, we serve up the newest, the hottest and the most delicious discoveries. If you can only pick one place to eat at this week—go here.
For porchetta devotees, the Saturday Ferry Building Farmers Market cult favorite Roli Roti has long been the city’s preeminent shrine to slow-roasted pork. But it appears there’s a new porcine player in town.
Bettola, which opened its doors in the inner Richmond in late May, makes a version of the Italian pork dish that’s unlike any I’ve had before. While most porchetta is sliced thick, Bettola’s boneless pork roast, studded with licoricey fennel and grounded with ample earthy rosemary, is cut mere centimeters thin. Emerging out of the restaurant’s big rotisserie oven, the succulent pork is punctuated with thin shards of crispy skin that snap and crack like pieces of salty-savory candy. It is served simply, unadorned, on wax paper.
I recommend a side of veggies, like grilled zucchini and broccoli di ciccio sauteed in garlic and chili, to go with it. But the menu also features other traditional Italian dishes to consider, like baccalà mantecato, a Venetian salt cod spread, and pasta e fagioli (or pasta fazool to New Yorkers).
Bettola is the latest addition to Clement Street, which is quickly becoming a food destination. It’s just one block up from Anthony Strong’s fresh pasta emporium Pasta Supply Co. and right next door to Kitchen Istanbul, an if-you-know-you-know destination for wine lovers and industry insiders. The casual Bettola makes a sensible addition to the neighborhood, mimicking Pasta Supply’s restaurant-with-a-market component. Bettola, however, is open most of the day—from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.—so locals can swing in for lunch, pop by for afternoon drinks or sit down for a full dinner.
Owner Gianluca Legrottaglie, also behind Montesacro Pinseria and 54 Mint Cucina Romana, was inspired by the restaurant and market his grandfather opened in Rome in the 1940s. It was a “bettola,” a type of eating place that blurred the lines between a tavern and a bodega, somewhere you could pick up pantry staples and get a simple meal with a glass of wine. They’re not common in Italy these days, which makes it even more sweet to have one here.
📍Bettola, 343 Clement St., Inner Richmond