Calzone's

Columbus Avenue in North Beach, San Francisco’s original Italian neighborhood, is crawling with Italian restaurants that offer good food and colorful ambiance. You know that. But the last time you walked out of one, your wallet cried, “Ouch!”

Cry no more, wallet. Calzone’s isn’t dirt cheap, but most entrees are under $15, and most appetizers, salads, soups and sandwiches are under $10. The food is authentically Italian, too, and the atmosphere is casual and fun.

The restaurant’s namesake dish is made six ways: smoked chicken, Italian, marinated eggplant, lasagna-style, swiss chard and pesto chicken. These calzones ($14-$15) are big enough to satisfy hearty appetites, and like the pizzas, shaped like surfboards and served on oblong plates. The 14 pizzas ($13-$16), also baked in a wood-fired oven, incorporate ingredients you won’t find at most pizzerias, like specialty Italian cheeses (fontina and grana), sauces and sausages. And the 18 pasta entrees, several that embed fresh seafood in the noodles, include fresh fettuccine, angel hair, orzo, ravioli, lasagna and gnocchetti variations. Add nine meat and seafood entrees and this is a menu that makes decisions pleasantly difficult.

The ambiance is as colorful and bountiful as the menu. From tables and booths on two levels, you’re surrounded by collections. On several walls are perhaps 1,000 Italian food items: pastas, salamis, garlic bouquets and more. Several shelves are lined with olive oil tins. Upstairs are matchboxes from hundreds of restaurants. In the bar is a wall blanketed by beer bottles (inspiring renditions of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”). And above the bar are more than 1,000 miniature bottles of spirits representing every imaginable cocktail ingredient. Adding a touch of class in the 1915 building are mirrors, chandeliers and red curtain fringes.

That’s just inside the restaurant. Fifteen heat-lamp-warmed tables are right on the sidewalk, with all chairs facing outward so that you can watch the parade of pedestrians stream past on Columbus, in the heart of North Beach. As it’s true inside the restaurant, the outdoor tables are marble-topped and the “floor” (sidewalk) is checkered black-and-white tiles. It’s all very Italian and not something you’ll find at Round Table.

HelloSanFrancisco Tip: The Tiramisu and Chocolate Mousse Cake (with raspberry coulis and mint cream) —$8 each—are “can’t miss” dessert choices.

- by Bob Cooper, San Francisco Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Bob Cooper

Bob Cooper is a full-time freelance writer (www.bob-cooper.com) who writes about travel, outdoor sports and health. He is a monthly contributor to Runner's World and has written recent articles for other national magazines such as Continental, Ladies' Home Journal and Inc.