This isn’t to say executive chef Daniella Banchero doesn’t take some measured risks. A salad of chilled artichoke hearts and sweet, smoky grilled turnips is punctuated with bits of cured black olives; straddling winter and spring, it is quirky but oddly good. More classic is beef carpaccio with arugula, a couple of plump, briny anchovies, and a blizzard of Parmesan. A stinging-nettle pizza with garlic cream and braised leeks is pitch-perfect — though I douse it in chiles. When I ask about the mystery green sauce sitting beneath a striped bass, the accommodating server not only wrangles the details from the chef (a puree of spinach, green onions, and olive oil), he practically gives us the ounce measurements.
The Presidio location was not something they saw coming; after weathering the hellish last five years, the two were ready to hang it up. “The pandemic was the worst experience of my life — being responsible for 50-plus employees through that time. I was completely defeated,” Sagan says. But then, Lucasfilm folks came calling and were so gracious and welcoming, Sagan and Rogat couldn’t refuse. “Sometimes things happen when you least expect it,” says Rogat.
The post Piccino’s second location opens in the Presidio appeared first on World Online.
