The team behind an acclaimed group of Italian food businesses in the Bay Area is opening an ambitious new Tuscan restaurant.
Owners David Nayfeld and Matt Brewer hope the combination of a lesser-seen regional Italian cuisine, tableside service and other theatrical touches will make the restaurant a dining destination.
“I’m trying to give San Francisco a reason to dine again and bring some curiosity and some celebration and some pomp and circumstance,” said Nayfeld, the restaurant group’s executive chef. “We want the country … to stand up and be like, ‘San Francisco is still taking major swings at restaurants.’”
They decided to focus on Tuscan cuisine, which though well-known, said Nayfeld, is “not as well understood as it should be, in my view, for being what I think is one of the most incredible food and drink regions in the world.”
Via Aurelia, named after the ancient road built to connect Rome to Pisa in Tuscany, will serve Tuscan classics like a grilled bistecca alla fiorentina, as well as wild game like rabbit, boar and quail. The kitchen will use Cinta Senese, a famed Tuscan pig breed, to make salumi, ragu and other dishes.
The menu will pay homage to Tuscany’s coastline with a significant amount of seafood as well as its robust ranching industry with products like butter, beef tallow and duck fat. (Ample vegetables from the Bay Area will also feature on the menu.) And Tuscany’s famed wines will be “on center display,” Nayfeld said.
During the daytime, the owners envision Via Aurelia as a quick business lunch option. For dinner, it will transform into a “more dressed up version of a restaurant than we’ve ever done before,” Nayfeld said. The menu will be designed for over-the-top tableside touches, similar to a baked clam dish at Che Fico’s Menlo Park restaurant, where employees use scissors to cut into calzone-like bread to reveal steaming clams cooked inside. Perhaps there will be a dessert cart, inspired by Nayfeld’s time at Eleven Madison Park in New York City.
Mission Rock, a joint development between the San Francisco Giants and real estate developer Tishman Speyer, has attracted major local food names including Arsicault Bakery, Flour + Water Pizza Shop (arriving in April) and Quik Dog, from the owners of celebrated cocktail bar Trick Dog. Blue Bottle Coffee and salad chain Sweetgreen are also opening this year.
Via Aurelia. Opening late summer 2025. 300 Toni Stone Crossing, Suite A, San Francisco. viaaureliasf.com
Reach Elena Kadvany: Elena.Kadvany@sfchronicle.com; Bluesky: @elenakadvany.bsky.social
Dining and Cooking