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After nearly a decade of serving cacio e pepe and pinsa in San Francisco, Roma Antica is expanding to the Peninsula.
The popular Roman trattoria expects to open in San Mateo in late September, a plan years in the making that was delayed by the pandemic. Owners Dogukan Solmaz, Roberto Sbaraglia and Alessandro Vasselli met while attending culinary school in Rome, moving to the U.S. to pursue their dream to open a restaurant together.
Now, the group also owns ‘Napizza, a San Francisco Neapolitan pizzeria; Bottega, a San Francisco Italian American restaurant; and L’Oro di Napoli, an Italian eatery in Santa Rosa and Petaluma.
Roma Antica’s new San Mateo outpost will be extremely similar to its original San Francisco restaurant, with a menu that’s 95% the same, according to Vasselli.
“The trattoria style in Italy is the classic restaurant,” he said. “You sit in the center of Rome, outside, and you have those big plates coming of handmade pasta, and so that’s what makes us strong.”
Standout pasta dishes include the tonarelli cacio e pepe and the coda alla vaccinara, a dish of homemade pappardelle topped with slowly cooked oxtail ragu ($21-$28). For a starter, Vasselli recommends the suppli, a crispy and cheesy rice croquette similar to arrancini ($13), and for a main, Vasselli is partial to the branzino ($34).
Roma Antica specializes in pinsa Romana, an oval-shaped flatbread with a crispy exterior and airy and soft interior. Pinsa Romana dough is made with a blend of wheat, rice and soy flours and comes topped with sauce, cheese and meat. Flavors at Roma Antica include the Diavola with spicy soppressata, stracchino cheese and tomato sauce, or the Prosciutto with creamy burrata cheese, arugula, pesto and prosciutto di parma ($19-$26).
For drinks, Roma Antica San Mateo will offer beer and wine to begin with, then later introduce a full bar, Vasseli said.
The new San Mateo restaurant is about 2,000 square feet, with high ceilings and a 10-seat bar made of Italian marble. Expect projections of old movies and Italian music from the ‘60s and ‘70s playing in the background.
Vasselli explained that he and his partners decided to expand Roma Antica to downtown San Mateo for three main reasons: They already do catering for companies in the area, many customers who frequent the San Francisco restaurant live in San Mateo and there aren’t a lot of traditional Italian restaurants in the area.
“My goal is just to keep enlarging our family, to keep growing together and bring Roman food into San Mateo,” Vasseli said.
Roma Antica, 172 E. Third Ave., San Mateo; Instagram: @romaanticasf. Beginning late September, expected hours Sunday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
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