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Christmas in North Beach: Flavors, food and faith
By GraceAnn Walden

Christmas sausages, the aroma of panettone baking, and a new chapel dedicated to St. Francis are all compelling reasons to visit North Beach at Christmastime. People are enticed by its Italian-flavored restaurants, shops and institutions.

Italians began to immigrate to this section of San Francisco after traveling to California for the Gold Rush in 1849. After word of the Gold Rush reached the port of Genoa, working-class Italians, like people from the east coast of the United States, China and other countries, caught gold fever.

Not many struck it rich. As the Italians filtered down from the gold fields, some established homesteads in Napa and Sonoma where they grew grapes.

But other Italians, from Liguria and Tuscany, found the weather, the water and the opportunities in boomtown San Francisco to their liking. They wrote home and more Italians came to what they soon called North Beach, “Little City.”

Later in the 19th century, Sicilians made their way to the coast and established fishing fleets, and later yet, restaurants at the wharf: Sabella’s, Alioto’s and Castagnola, for example.

Still today, walking the streets of North Beach during Christmas, one can hear some of the old timers greeting each other, “buon natale.”

If you have Italian friends or are of Italian descent, and want to send buon natale greetings, the 128-year-old Cavalli Books and Café (1441 Stockton Street, 415-421-4219) has Christmas cards in Italian, beautiful calendars, maps, Italian cookbooks and magazines, and soccer gear. My favorite is the apron that says, “Recipe? What recipe, I’m Italian.” The owner, Santo, hands down makes the best Neapolitan cappuccino in North Beach.

One of the best places to indulge in some retail therapy is Abitare (522 Columbus Avenue, 415-392-5800). The owner, Cia Van Orden, stocks her tiny shop with pleated and beaded cuff gloves ($14), tiny vintage teapots that hold scented candles ($20), beautiful embroidered guest towels with Christmas themes ($9), and a fair-trade hand-knitted doll from Kenya for the kids ($22).

Biordi Art Imports (412 Columbus Avenue, 415-392-8096) is a beautiful and unique store celebrating 62 years in North Beach. Faced with the ever-annoying “someone who has everything,” this is the place to shop for him or her.

Biordi is the premier importer of Italian majolica pottery to San Francisco. The owner, Gianfranco Savio, travels yearly to the studios of artists in Deruta, Faenza and Florence, buying dishes, cups, vases, mantelpieces, urns, and friezes. Prices range from $8 to the thousands.

Italians by tradition fast on Christmas Eve and then eat seafood. One terrific choice for a seafood dinner is Rose Pistola (532 Columbus Avenue, 415-399-0499), which will be serving until about 11 p.m. Imagine a seafood mixed grill for two with a whole succulent branzino (sea bass), tiger prawns, clams, and scallops ($58). Other choices include skillet-roasted mussels ($11) or seafood with spaghetti featuring shrimp, octopus, calamari, and mussels ($17).

Stroll over to Firenze by Night (1429 Stockton Street, 415-392-8485) to see chef Sergio Giusti’s Italian village made from chocolate. While you’re there, sip one of Sergio’s arrays of grappas. Firenze is the place in North Beach to enjoy award-winning gnocchi ($11.50) or Giusti’s signature pappardelle Toscana (with rabbit ragu, $14.25).

Another way to get into the spirit, without grappa, is to attend midnight mass at Sts. Peter and Paul Church (666 Filbert Street, 415-421-0809), locally known as the Italian cathedral. Father John Itzaina says that one spectacular element of the church’s celebration is the seven-to-eight-foot candles that are part of the Christmas wreath. Of course, the whole altar is brightly decorated with poinsettias. Father says that if you get there by 11:15 p.m., you can hear 45 minutes of Christmas music before the midnight mass.

Besides all the restaurants in North Beach, there are several artisans making pastry, bread and sausages like their forefathers did 100 years ago.

What could be more delicious than the holiday sausages from Little City Meats (1400 Stockton Street, 415-986-2601)? Year round, every week, Ron and Mike Spinali make four to six original sausages and sell them at their butcher shop. But at Christmas, the draw is a holiday sausage that contains pork, fennel seed, parsley, garlic, and imported Provolone cheese ($7.98 a pound). If that doesn’t appeal to you, they have the most tender veal scaloppini, osso bucco, and my favorite, a stuffed whole boned chicken breast filled with spinach, sausage and three kinds of cheese, rolled and tied ($9.98 a pound).
Want an idea for an easy Christmas dinner idea for eight people?

• 3 stuffed chicken breasts from Little City meats (bake 45 minutes in a 350 oven; you’ll have some leftovers)
• 1 9x13 pan of garlic-scented scalloped potatoes (steep the garlic in the milk-cream mixture)
• A large tossed salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar
Dessert could be a St. Honore cake from Victoria Pastry (1362 Stockton Street, 415-781-2015), or one of their torta della nonna, an almond torte with a touch of raspberry jam ($14.50). The St. Honore cake features white layer cake, rum custard between the layers, all covered in whipped cream. And, oh, topped with puffs filled with custard and candied cherry halves. The nine-inch cake is $34.50

During the holiday season, homemakers and the local bakeries prepare panettone, slightly sweet bread with lemon or orange peel, pine nuts and raisins. One of the best comes from Liguria Bakery (1700 Stockton Street, 415-421-3786). Get there early for their panettone ($6), and also their world-class focaccia before they sell out.

A new structure that is a jewel in North Beach’s crown is the Porziuncula (610 Vallejo Street, 415-983-0405) adjacent to the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi. Spearheaded by former San Francisco supervisor Angela Alioto, the more than $2 million chapel is a replica of a tiny church in the frazione of Santa Maria degli Angeli, four kilometers from Assisi. This tiny church, which was given to St. Francis in 1205, became the cradle of his order, the Franciscans. Materials and craftspeople were brought from Italy to build the replica inside the former gymnasium of St. Francis of Assisi church. At Christmas there will be a creche.

In North Beach, you can celebrate the holidays with music, shopping and food in this little corner of Italian culture.

GraceAnn Walden is a food writer, contributes regularly to Northside San Francisco, and has conducted food-history tours of North Beach for over 20 years (holiday gift certificates available). E-mail: graceann@northsidesf.com

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