When Michael and Lindsay Tusk announced their plans in early 2009 to move the intimate Pacific Heights restaurant Quince to a bigger, flashier downtown space in Jackson Square, a collective shudder was felt in San Francisco. Would the new place be the same? It turns out, in some ways, yes: Michael Tusk’s Northern Italian-inspired pastas, such as agnolotti dal plin and pappardelle with suckling pig, still rule the menu. The biggest change is that those dishes are now presented in an expansive space that feels like an elite club rather than a small dining room. The Tusks also brought David Lynch, former wine director for NYC’s Babbo, out west. Lynch expanded the old list to feature plenty of regional Italian wines, including rarities like Ar.Pe.Pe.‘s Sassella Vigna Regina, a silky nebbiolo from Valtellina that just begs for a plate of the agnolotti.
470 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, California
French
415-775-8500
Based in San Francisco, Wolfgang Weber was the Italian wine critic at W&S. He now works with the Revel Wine and Selection Massale, and continues to write freelance. Nebbiolo is his spirit grape but if he were to live anywhere in Italy, he’d choose Liguria.
This story appears in the print issue of February 2010.
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