373 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco
As the sign says, Molinari’s has been around since 1876. It is a north beach institution and I am a big fan of their salami. This is another food shrine, with a bunch of crusty old guys who appear to have been working there for a long time and don’t have much tolerance for newbies.
1) First, you must get a number. 2) You must go to the bin and pick the roll of bread that you want your sandwich to be made with, and have it in your hand ready. 3) Next, you have to pick what you want to go into your sandwich. You want to be at #3 by the time your number is called, otherwise prepare to annoy your server and to be bullied through the rest of your transaction.
There is an overhead menu with a dizzying list of possibilities, the meats, the cheeses, and as well as some suggested combinations that have become house specialties over the years. I enjoyed the eggplant Parmesan, which is a breaded and fried eggplant cutlet layered with fresh mozzarella, sundried tomatoes and marinara sauce and then heated. The sundried tomatoes are large, very salty and marinated, so I ended up chucking most of them as they tend to overwhelm everything. They are very piquant and flavorful and would be much better chopped up so you only have little bits rather than a 10 or so entire half of a dried tomato blobs per sandwich to have to chew your way through. The caprese sandwich also has a liberal dose of these tomatoes rather than fresh tomato…
D had a very fine looking turkey with roasted peppers, fresh mozzarella and pesto
BG had a turkey and salami with lettuce and tomato that looked very freshly bitten into. Notice the attractive layer of mayo nestled up to the salami… another time I will go on about my adjacency theories with sandwich making.
Besides sandwiches, they have cases with cold salads and also pasta (tortellini, lasagna, meatballs) that can be heated up at your request.
We took our sandwiches and enjoyed eating them on the steps of a church across the street so that we could sit in the sun.
The family that owns Molinari’s opened up a new deli in the Ferry Building called Mastrelli’s. They have a similar if not the same menu.
One Comment
Just had my first sandwich from Molinari’s – AWESOME!
Lean & flavorful pastrami and REAL mozzarella!