E’ Tutto Qua Roman Restaurant Says Ciao to North Beach

E’ Tutto Qua is closing after nearly 13 years of spinning Roman-style pizza and pasta from a popular corner of North Beach, the SF Chronicle spotted first. And fair enough — it was a favorite of their former restaurant critic Michael Bauer, who wrote a couple of years back, the “service has a familial quality” and the “pastas truly star here.” E’ Tutto Qua also ranked high on Tripadvisor, rising to number 16 out of several thousand restaurants listed in San Francisco, making it a popular stop for the slews of tourists guided by that platform.

Since 2007, E’ Tutto Qua inhabited one of those dramatically skinny corners in North Beach, at the iconic crossroads of Columbus Avenue and Broadway, immediately across from City Lights, the historic bookstore, and next door to Specs, that dirty martini institution. Bauer claimed this sliver of real estate was once the original Bank of America building, known at the time as the Bank of Italy.

It’s exactly the kind of restaurant that locals might stroll past, but fog-weary travelers would stumble into with negroni-fueled delight. To many, E’ Tutto Qua must have captured exactly what they craved out of a dining experience in North Beach: pizza, pasta, warm service, and a view of the street. Owner Enzo Pellico grew up in Italy and trained in Rome, so the restaurant was run by actual Italians, who took pride in fresh fish, like the thinly sliced octopus carpaccio, without “too much garlic, spices, or gimmicks.” (Eater SF reached out to Pellico for further comment, but hasn’t received a response as of publication time.)

The restaurant quietly closed at the end of June, making the announcement on social media with few details but a lot of love and exclamation points. It’s a slightly unsettling closing in the midst of the current crisis, as North Beach has always embraced outdoor dining, and E’ Tutto Qua was known for its sidewalk tables. But it also welcomed many travelers, and now that the tourists have departed, Chinatown and North Beach are uncharacteristically quiet.

The announcement elicited over 100 responses from fans of this Roman-inspired restaurant, diners from near and far with fond memories of meals at this cozy spot in SF’s historic Italian-American neighborhood. Its closure also raises the question: as the pandemic continues, will it cost San Francisco all of its tourist venues, many of which are also true neighborhood gems?