Recently Mr. Food Musings and I walked up to Laurel Heights for a bite at Pascal Rigo's newest eatery. Rigolo is a casual place, the type where you order in a queue and then sit down to wait for your food. Though in disposition it's similar to his boulangerie on Polk Street, the menu embraces breakfast, lunch and dinner, not to mention a special menu just for kids.
We dropped by for our inaugural visit on Easter Sunday, and even on the holiday Rigolo was hopping (no pun intended, Mr. Easter Bunny). Mr. Food Musings and I both planned on eating something healthy. I chose the shrimp scampi served over a tangle of arugula, beans, tomatoes and thin slivers of roasted garlic in an oily vinaigrette. Mr. FM thought he'd like the Nicoise - until he saw the Rigolo pizza on another diner's table, its model-thin crust topped with spinach, mushrooms, bacon and a fried egg.
And so, in compromise between his arteries and his taste buds, he had one of the pizzas simply named tomato. The rectangular flat of thinnest dough utterly intrigued us as we struggled to identify it. Croissant or puff pastry dough? Thin enough but lacking poof. Crispy bread dough, bathed ever so lightly in egg wash, perhaps? We gave up and just dug in. The pizza Maragarita lookalike replaces traditional mozzarella with fontina for added smokiness. Both our meals were good, and after stopping next door at Wine Impression (where we snagged two bottles of our new favorite Shea Pinot Noir) we've decided we'll come back for dinner sometime soon. Roasted chicken or a thick slab of steak with parmesan fries and spinach? Yum.
Wine afficionados and cheapskates alike will be pleased to know that any bottle of wine purchased at Wine Impression can be opened at Rigolo for a very modest $5 corkage fee. Browse the Italians till you find one marked "great pizza wine," ring up your $16 purchase and head next door.
Rigolo, San Francisco, 3465 California Street, 415-876-7777
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