Poesia Osteria

A Calabrian osteria up a staircase on a Castro corner, with a courtyard out the back. We have been going since 2013.

4072 18th Street at Castro, San Francisco

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Address

4072 18th Street at Castro, San Francisco

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Cuisine

Calabrian and southern Italian

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Up a Staircase

Second floor of a Victorian. There is no dining room at street level

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Downstairs

Poesia Cafe, the same owners, pastry and coffee by day

Why We Keep Going Back

Poesia is on the second floor of a Victorian at 18th and Castro, up a staircase you would walk past if you did not know. The room at the top is a Victorian parlour: teal walls, gilt frames, a beaded lamp, velvet banquettes. Out the back there is a covered courtyard with stone walls and hanging lights, built to feel like a small piazza. The cooking is Calabrian and southern Italian, the pasta is made in the building. We first ate here in 2013, five years after Francesco opened it. We can date ten of those dinners and there have been more.

A Little History

Francesco d’Ippolito opened Poesia in 2008 and has run it since. He is Calabrese, and the menu says so: swordfish, capers, olives, squid ink, and a ragu that goes by his grandmother’s name. It is one of the few restaurants in the city where the owner is likely to be in the room, and worth talking to if he is.

What to Order

Start with the tagliere and the giardino di verdure, which between them cover the table while you decide. Then the pasta, which is the point: agnolotti al plin in a roast jus, or the paccheri with swordfish, olives and capers. The specials board moves with the season and has been worth following every time. If there is fish of the day, ask what it is.

To open

To Open

A board of cured meat and cheese, a garden of roasted vegetables, and scallops over black polenta.

A wooden board of sliced cured meats and cheeses with small dishes of condiments. — **Tagliere Salumi e Formaggi**The tagliere: a board of imported Italian cured meats and cheeses to open the meal, with the giardino di verdure alongside.

A plate of roasted vegetables including broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, carrot, and beet. — **Giardino di Verdure**Giardino di verdure, a garden plate of roasted vegetables: broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, carrot, beet, and roasted tomato.

Seared scallops on a black squid-ink polenta cake with onions and green herb oil. — **Capesante in Saor**Capesante in saor: seared scallops over a squid-ink polenta cake, finished with sweet and sour onions, pine nuts, raisins, and basil.

Grilled bread topped with chopped tomato and basil arranged on a wooden board. — **Tomato and Basil Crostini**Crostini of grilled bread piled with chopped tomato and basil, arranged around a tuft of red lettuce on a board.

Fried calamari in a parchment-lined bowl with a dish of aioli and a lemon wedge. — **Fried Calamari**Fried calamari, tentacles and rings, served in parchment with a herb aioli and lemon.

The pasta

The Pasta

Made in house and the reason to come back. Pinched agnolotti, wide paccheri with swordfish, squid ink, and a lasagna that arrives on a pool of cheese cream.

Small pinched filled pasta parcels in a brown sauce with grated cheese on a mauve plate. — **Agnolotti al Plin**Agnolotti al plin, small hand-pinched filled pasta, in a brown-butter and roast jus with grated cheese.

Wide paccheri pasta with swordfish, green olives, capers, and cherry tomatoes in tomato sauce. — **Paccheri allo Spada in Puttanesca**Paccheri allo spada in puttanesca: wide pasta tubes with swordfish, green olives, capers, and cherry tomatoes in a tomato sauce.

Black squid-ink pasta with prawns and calamari rings in tomato sauce on a white plate. — **Squid Ink Tagliolini**Squid-ink tagliolini tossed with prawns and calamari in a light tomato sauce.

Thick pasta coated in a creamy pecorino sauce with cracked black pepper. — **Cacio e Pepe**Thick strands of fresh pasta in a pecorino and black pepper sauce, cacio e pepe.

A slice of baked layered lasagna on a cream sauce topped with parsley. — **Lasagna**Lasagna, layered and baked, set on a smooth cheese cream and dressed with parsley.

Ribbons of pappardelle in a brown meat ragu topped with grated cheese. — **Pappardelle al Ragu della Nonna**Pappardelle al ragu della nonna, ribbons of pasta in a slow-cooked meat ragu under a heavy grating of aged cheese.

After the pasta

After the Pasta

Two plates from two different years: a beef tenderloin special with potatoes and mushrooms, and whatever the fish was that night.

Two seared beef tenderloin medallions with roasted potatoes and mushrooms on a white plate. — **Beef Tenderloin**Beef tenderloin, seared and sliced, with roasted fingerling potatoes and sauteed mushrooms.

A crusted fillet of fresh white fish over diced zucchini and peppers in green oil. — **The Fish of the Day**Fresh fish of the day, a crusted fillet over stewed summer vegetables in a basil oil.

Dessert

One, and it is enough.

A layered mille-feuille pastry dusted with powdered sugar with chocolate and berry sauce. — **Millefoglie**A layered millefoglie dusted with sugar, plated with chocolate and a raspberry coulis.

Getting in

Getting In

A painted door on 18th Street, a staircase, and a Victorian parlour at the top of it. There is nothing at street level to tell you a restaurant is up there.

The Poesia storefront, a red Victorian with painted double doors of two classical figures and a Poesia sign. — **The Painted Doors**The Poesia facade on 18th Street, its burgundy upper dining room above the painted double doors of two classical figures, with the Poesia Osteria Italiana sign at the stair.

A marble staircase with a painted Poesia panel leading up to a warm red dining room. — **The Climb**The staircase up to Poesia, past the painted Poesia stair panel and a spill of flowers, into the glowing red room at the top.

A fringed vintage lamp and gilt-framed pictures on a teal wall above a blue velvet banquette. — **Upstairs**A corner of the upstairs room, a Victorian parlor of teal walls, a beaded lamp, and gilt-framed pictures over a velvet banquette.

Ask for the courtyard when you book. It is the best room in the building and it is not the one you get by default
Read the specials before the menu. Several of the best things we have eaten here were never on it
The pasta is made in house, so order more of it than you think you need and fewer secondi
Poesia Cafe downstairs is the same operation by day, and a good reason to come back in the morning

Frequently Asked Questions

Where exactly is it?

On the second floor of a Victorian at 18th and Castro. The entrance is a door and a staircase, and there is nothing at street level except Poesia Cafe, which belongs to the same people. If you are looking for a storefront restaurant you will walk past it.

What is Calabrian cooking?

Calabria is the toe of Italy, so the cooking is southern and coastal: swordfish, olives, capers, chilli, squid ink. It is not the northern Italian food most American restaurants mean by Italian, and it is not the red-sauce menu either.

Is the courtyard worth asking for?

Yes. Stone walls, hanging lights and a heater under a corrugated roof, and it feels nothing like the street outside. Ask when you book, because it is not what you are given by default.

How does it compare to La Ciccia?

They are both southern Italian and both small, and we go back to both. La Ciccia is Sardinian and built on bottarga and octopus. Poesia is Calabrian, with more pasta and a room that feels like a stage set. If you want one dinner, pick by whether you would rather eat fish or pasta.

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