Marin couple opens Italian restaurant in San Rafael – Marin Impartial Journal

Fourth Street in San Rafael has one other Italian choice within the combine with the January opening of Sapori Ristorante, a navy-blue storefront serving a menu of salads, pastas, pizzas, calzones and desserts.

The restaurant is owned and run by chef Jaime Wence and his spouse, Esther, who manages the entrance of home. The couple relocated to San Rafael from Isleton within the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, the place they personal Manny’s Barzzeria, a 6-year-old pizzeria and bar named after Jaime Wence’s father and mentor. Day-to-day operations there are actually dealt with by longtime staff.

“We were at a point where we wanted a new challenge, and this building came up for sale and we got three in one,” mentioned Esther Wence, referring to the downtown ground-floor restaurant and two residences above.

Jaime Wence comes from an prolonged Mexican household of restaurateurs with companies throughout the Delta and into the East Bay. His father spent years working in an Italian restaurant in Alameda earlier than opening Lucy’s Cafe in Brentwood in 2001 and transferring it to Rio Vista a couple of years later.

He started working alongside his father at a younger age, transferring from bussing tables to prep and finally on the road.

“Jaime still laughs about the first pasta dish he ever made,” mentioned Esther Wence, recalling when Jaime’s father first confirmed him find out how to put together a basic spicy arrabbiata. “When he asked how it was, his dad gave a blunt assessment, calling it ‘terrible.’”

That early second caught with him, setting the tone for a gradual means of experimentation and refinement that he continued to deepen by means of books, grasp lessons and time with different cooks.

The all-day menu facilities on acquainted Italian requirements, beginning with antipasti like burrata with pistachio and olive oil, fried calamari and carpaccio with shaved Parmesan and arugula.

Pastas vary from richer combos like lasagna layered with sausage, floor beef, mushrooms and 4 cheeses and fiocchi in gorgonzola sauce to seafood-based dishes resembling salmon piccata and linguine pescatore with prawns and clams in a creamy white wine sauce.

The unique pizza oven, relationship again to Napoli Pizza & Pasta (2008 to 2018) and retained by means of two Nepalese eating places and the short-lived Il Gusto, has been changed. The Wences swapped it out for a bigger oven from their Isleton restaurant higher suited to their wants.

Jaime Wence’s pizza dough is described as California-style, completed with a contact of honey relatively than adhering strictly to Neapolitan custom. Combinations vary from basic pepperoni and margherita to extra loaded variations that includes toppings like prosciutto and arugula, marinated garlic shrimp and pesto, pineapple and bacon, rooster with mushroom and a number of other vegetarian choices, or diners can construct their very own. Any pizza will be changed into a calzone.

Five salads — home blended greens, Caesar, arugula, strawberry spinach and a wedge with bacon and blue cheese — include optionally available add-ons resembling rooster, prawns or salmon. The dessert menu contains house-made tiramisu, cannoli, crème brûlée, limoncello gelato and spumoni bomba, layers of strawberry, pistachio and chocolate gelato coated in chocolate.

Weekend specials are impressed by the Thursday Marin Farmers Market, the place the kitchen additionally sources staples like honey and olive oil.

The wine listing focuses on Italian areas, together with Tuscany and Piedmont, with a smaller choice from California.

Previous tenants did quick-fix updates, however when the Wences bought the constructing, they undertook a year-long full renovation.

The slender house runs deep, anchored on the entrance by a wine bar with a mosaic tile entrance and 5 stools. A row of woven pendant lights illuminates eight pure wooden tables with banquette seating alongside the eating room wall.

Sapori Ristorante is open from midday to 9 p.m. day by day with completely happy hour from 3 to five p.m. Sundays by means of Fridays at 869 Fourth St. in San Rafael. More data is offered at saporimarin.com.

Leanne Battelle is a contract meals author and restaurant columnist. Email her at [email protected] or observe The Real Deal Marin at therealdealmarin.com for extra on native meals information.