Articles & Reviews: Thrillist, San Francisco Food + Dining

August 24, 2010

Osteria Coppa

Big time Italian just south of the city

Opens tomorrow; 139 South B St., btwn 1st and 2nd; San Mateo; 650.579.6021

Moving out of a city can be a traumatic experience, unless its called Daly City, in which case -- shame on you for living there in the first place! For a chef moving out of the city to make your own sojourns more palatable, hit Osteria Coppa.

From the folks behind Sam's Chowder House in HMB, OC's a massive loft-space in downtown San Mateo with Edison-inspired light bulbs, vaulted ceilings, hewn hardwood floors and an open-arched kitchen that shows off its crispy-pizza-crust-making "Marsal" stone oven manned by a first-time exec chef with some serious in-the-city resto chops (Quince, Jardinere, etc), though nowhere near as serious as Ambrose Burnside. Hand-made pasta, pizza, and antipasti skew enclosed meats, and include agnolotti dal plin (pasta envelopes filled with veal, pork, and guinea hen), an artisan pie with sausage, pepperoni, and cloud-like balls of ricotta, plus a house-cured salumi platter with Duck Prosciutto, which's kinda like Duck Hunt, except you also have to slice up the ducks with the Nintendo butcher's knife, and the dog is your incompetent son you're afraid to leave the business to when you die. An L-shaped marble bar seats 14 and serves up tons of Italian wine (45 full bottles, 17 by-the-glass), beer on tap, plus 10 signature cocktails including the B Street Collins (Plymouth Gin/St. Germain/fresh lemon juice) and the Bulliet Bourbon-based Peach Pistola, also the name of the Peach Pit, after Nat sold it to a Mexican street gang.

The 4,200-square-foot space also has a sweet outdoor patio in the back with strand Christmas lighting and umbrellas, dubbed "Coppa Cabana," which'll be a great place to enjoy the sun outside the city, once you've tired of that snack cart by the BART station.

Marvel at the full meat-filled menu, then debate amongst your friends what a "lobster mushroom" is