Poggio Trattoria
Our Rating....................................................... 9 Sea Lions
777 Bridgeway, Sausalito 415-332-7771
Website and reservations are here. Menus are here. Free valet parking.
You can read about Chef Peter McNee, his time spent working in Italy and his approach to food here. An interview is here, and his guide to making your own mozzarella is here.
Open for Coffee and pastries (early morning), Lunch and Dinner. Most recent editor review: November, 2008. Entree price range (for Dinner) at time of most recent review: $10-$29.
#1 Italian restaurant and #5 overall on our Sausalito Visitors RankingTM list for December, 2008
#4 on our Long Memories Top TenTM list of the best special occasion restaurants in Sausalito for December, 2008
Fast Forward SummaryTM: Poggio is an award-winning restaurant that makes you feel like you're dining in Italy. In nice weather sitting at the tables on the sidewalk is just like being in Europe. At dinner call for a reservation to avoid a long wait. Legendary restauranteur Larry Mindel came out of retirement to do the project, but despite the fabulous architecture this is not a pricey, overdone temple. Yes, you can cross paths with famous actors and rockers here (see our story below), but it's a place for everybody rather than the Tragically Trendy. The focus is on serving good, authentic Italian food with incredibly fresh ingredients, all at prices similar to the other nice restaurants nearby. Good service, strong wine list. Occupies the ground floor of the modern wing of the Casa Madrona Hotel.
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Poggio Trattoria: The Details
Poggio is one of my very favorite restaurants. Tucked into the Casa Madrona Hotel complex at the northern end of the historical Sausalito visitors area along Bridgeway, this is a little piece of Italy in San Francisco.
Here are my favorite things about Poggio, with some miscellaneous comments and information thrown in as well:
1. Lots of restaurants in California have tables on the sidewalk to make it feel like Europe, but when you go there you feel like you're sitting on the sidewalk next to your office. At Poggio, when you sit on the sidewalk you only have to blink your eyes a couple of times to believe you're in Europe.
2. Cold night? The dining room has an aura of class. Lots of dark wood tones mixed in with lighter colors so the mood stays up. Bring a cabinetmaker friend and he or she will start running their hands across the wainscoting. It's usually busy and buzzing , but you can talk to the people across the table without having to shout to be heard.
3 The menu! They focus on fresh local produce and high quality seafood and meat, and the menu changes significantly every day.
4. Just two blocks from the Sausalito Ferry dock, where the Blue and Gold service connects to Pier 41 in San Francisco and the Golden Gate Ferry connects to the San Francisco Ferry Building. Be careful, though: the ferries don't run that late at night, especially on the weekend. Our guide to the Ferry service is here.
5. Friendly, not snooty service. The bartender is Italian and very warm and welcoming. But this isn't warmth in place of knowledge: if you have a question about wine they'll make sure you get a sophisticated answer. Sometime during the evening the General Manager or the Manager on duty will come over to your table and ask you if you're enjoying your meal... and they'll actually listen to what you say when you answer.
6. The locals, the tourists and the celebrities all get treated the same. One night I was here with a friend and four well-known rockers were in the booth across from us -- I assume they were recording at a local studio. We had the same server waiting on both tables, and our table was treated with as much respect and attention as The Famous Guys.
7. The pizza. Baked in a wood-fired oven, fresh ingredients and a home-made, wider-than-it-is-tall shape. And at a reasonable price for a good Bay Area restaurant.
8. The pasta and salads. Very very fresh.
9. Great spot for a romantic dinner for two. Guys, this place will impress her. Works well for a first date or an anniversary dinner.
10. Their "this is a dish you don't usually see outside Italy" menu items. These tend to be specials they do only for special occasions, but ask if they have anything like that on the menu when you go in.
11. The desserts look terrific but I have to say that I usually don't order dessert with dinner. Of course there was that gelato the one time and there was a time I had the creme brulee...
12. Free valet parking. If you read this site for long you'll know I love the word "free"!
Other items of note:
If you're traveling on a budget, don't skip this place -- the pizza entrees are affordable and really remind me of eating in Italy.
To get to the restrooms you have to take a little elevator to the second floor. It's actually fun, but some people look at you funny when you tell them.
For locals and early-risers: Poggio opens the front area of the restaurant as a coffee shop at 6:30 in the morning. Great coffee. I am a world-class judge of pastries and these are great. And they taste all the better sitting at a sidewalk table.
They filter their own water (I admit I tuned out when they explained the Italian technology), and offer a complimentary carafe of either gas or still when you sit down. I like this way better than paying $5 for bottled water the way you do at so many places. Of course, Sausalito tap water is pretty darn good to start with.
One time I had an hour to kill and I stopped by Poggio. I sat at a bar table, took out my laptop and ordered a Diet Coke. The bartender who served me, whom I had not met, talked pleasantly with me off-and-on for what probably added up to ten minutes. That's not what usually happens when you order a soda at a restaurant bar in the late afternoon, and it underscores that the focus on guests here is very strong whether the tab is going to be $3 or $30 or $300.
When we're sitting outside here I do wish I had a magic wand to stop the Golden Gate Transit buses from driving by with a roar on Bridgeway. But it's the same with sidewalk dining in London or Paris. And, ironically, sidewalk dining at Poggio is a lot nicer than most similar places we've eaten in Rome!
Other thoughtful diner articles on Poggio are here and here.
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We use a One to Ten "Sea Lion" system to rate restaurants, where ten Sea Lions is the highest possible score. The Benjamin Bufano statue of a Sea Lion that graces the edge of the Bay in Sausalito is an enduring symbol of the city.
