Alimentari Aurora — Restaurant in San Francisco

This is a cute little deli and Italian grocery store tucked in Potrero Hill. You can enjoy the daily kitchen specials in the park-let or get takeout to enjoy at home.

This is one of my favorite spots for satisfying focaccia cravings. What makes it special is Chef Dario’s obsession with quality ingredients and no shortcuts. The sourdough has a beautiful sour taste that’s a result of a 3 day fermentation process - I don’t know of any other focaccias that are proofer, rested and allowed to ferment for 72+ hours, except some mad scientist home bakers. I find this better than Liguria bakery, the OG of San Francisco focaccia, and that speaks to the quality and flavors that Chef Dario is able to create.

The sourdough focaccia is thick and satisfying but not dense. It’s usually served during the weekend, for dinner, and comes in 3 different types: herbed, pizza and one with meat (fine Italian speck). I order it online on their website and probably commit blasphemy by toasting it for a couple minutes.

For lunch they serve 2 kinds of paninis: one meaty and another veggie. I haven’t tried the panini yet but that’s my next quest. It looked delicious in the Yelp pics.

I was fortunate to sample some excellent funky cheese that they sell in the store along with charcuterie, Calabrian chili oil, olives and many other curated specialty items.

Chef Dario is the nicest guy and knows his tradecraft. I was impressed when he mentioned the gelato and pizza places I loved in Bologna. Ask him for some recommendations or from his excellent staff, who recommended the most unique cheese that I have ever sampled.

I hope their oven gets repaired soon as I am craving my weekly fix of sourdough focaccia. Be warned it’s very very very addictive, and I don’t use my...

Life in the past couple years has convinced me to stay home a lot more than I used to. You know what can make a blah evening at home into a special occasion? Something precious and flavorful and packaged with love. And that's pretty much all you'll find at Alimentari Aurora. They've got tinned fish, chocolate bars, cheeses, olives, pastas. Everything is decadent and divine. I'd rather have a small wedge of cheese from here than the largest block of blah whatever from the grocery store, or a few nibbles of chocolate from here (dates and fennel? yes please!) instead of the largest dessert on any menu. They appear to have a fun little apéro hour offering, and actually that makes me wish I was a neighbor, that I'd leave home for. Instead I will have to drop by every so often to restock...

I’ve never seen tuna spread this thin and still called a sandwich for $16.29.

It’s also curried which was not in the description so I thought they mixed it up with the curried cauliflower. Why is one called vadouvan and the other curry if they're the same thing?

The sales tax charged “for here” should go to saving the parklet because what's the point of asking and charging it when there’s no seating in the establishment? "To go” is the same thing when you eat at the parklet and doesn't get charged sales tax. I don't expect anyone running a business like this to know that, nor do I expect it to last long with Hazel's down the street being the obvious better choice.

I'll also bring popcorn to watch the Valencia location die, what a joke, what was Fault Radio thinking renting from...