A trendy Valencia Street wine bar, known for its sandwiches and curated selection of bottles, is closing after two years.
Studio Aurora, which once shared a space with the community radio station Fault Radio, will cease operations Saturday. Owner Dario Barbone plans to shift his priorities to Alimentari Aurora (opens in new tab), his shop and restaurant in Potrero Hill.
He’s hosting a huge wine sale and party on Studio Aurora’s last day. From 5 to 9 p.m., Berkeley’s Tessier Winery will pour small-batch offerings as Barbone fires pinsas, pleasantly chewy Roman-style pizza pies.
Wines will be 30% off the menu price and 40% off mixed cases of bottles. Everything must go, he said.
The property’s new owners, Emma Rahr and Trang Trinh, plan to open a wine bar and restaurant early next year.
“I prefer to pass the torch to a couple of friends,” Barbone says. “The block will stay alive. I just need to focus on something else.”
Namely, getting married. Barbone proposed this month.
The audio equipment company Western Acoustics will rent the space for November for use as a temporary showroom.
Studio Aurora hosted DJ sets in addition to serving food and wine. | Source: Courtesy Studio Aurora
Studio Aurora brought Barbone’s signature brand of hard-to-find snacks and drinks to 14th and Valencia streets. Sicilian sfincione-style focaccia sandwiches, wine and beer from all over the world, and DJ sets ruled the roost. The storefront quickly became a mainstay on a stretch of the thoroughfare devoid of stylish day-and-night third spaces.
The venue also hosted roaming pop-ups like Vietnamese cafe Nâu Coffee (opens in new tab) and yakitori hitmaker Bar Tanuki (opens in new tab). Fault Radio, meanwhile, exited in July.
At the same time, Studio was becoming more popular, but Barbone threw himself into developing Alimentari, launching a Friday-night chef’s tasting menu (opens in new tab) that seats two guests at a time. He says he’s excited to go deeper into his fascination with rare finds at Alimentari.
“We have 10 people a night,” Barbone says. “It’s like they come to my house. I took that feeling of hosting guests from Studio.”
Barbone emigrated from Italy — he hails from Vercelli in Piedmont — in 2004 to work as a researcher at UC San Francisco, studying molecular medicine. After 15 years in the lab, Barbone pivoted to food, experimenting with a pasta company and launching Aurora in 2019 as a pop-up at 1415 18th St. He took the lease from previous occupant Provender and opened Alimentari, an homage to his nonna, in November 2020.
Studio Aurora became a lunch destination for its focaccia sandwiches. | Source: Courtesy Studio Aurora
He’s developed a cult-like following of diners who look forward to his sermons of esoteric cheeses, meats, chips, sodas, and other delicious bits.
But with two businesses, it became taxing to visit family in Italy. The lunch rush at Studio Aurora was arduous in the sheer volume of sandwiches he had to sell to break even.
Barbone is optimistic that the new owners – who plan to operate only in the evening – will make a splash. For now, Barbone is content with the already daunting challenge of running one restaurant.
“I proved to myself I could do it,” Barbone says. “I’m just fading like Homer Simpson into the bushes (opens in new tab).”
Dining and Cooking