A wine bar on the Lower Haight?

It seems bizarre to me that, in the same stretch with the Toranado, Noc Noc, Two Jack's Fish-of-questionable-food-safety and Cheaper Meat & Fish Market we could have a yuppie wine bar. But, there it was; my wife and I stumbled across it while heading to Thep Phenom and thought we ought to check it out.

It turned out that the Italian name wasn't just pretension; one of the owners was Italian and that means that the menu was entirely in correct Italian. Daring of them. Even I had to ask for translation of one or two items. I imagine they'll have to modify their strong authenticity stance eventually, but for now I applaud it.

Mostly, they are focused on serving an assortment of Italian and American wines, most of them fairly priced, and chosen with a good knowledge of mid-priced Italian wines. Pours are very generous; note the mini-carafe of overpour which came with my glass of Amarone.

The food is there so that you can still find your way to the 71 Haight afterwards. Most of the menu consists of antipasto items, including Italian-style cold cuts, cheeses, and vegetables. They have an impressive list of imports; clearly they are making somebody at Italfoods delriously happy.

However, since my sweetie and I had come there in search of dinner, we opted to try some of the prepared items. This may have been an error.

Bottom to top, we have a crostino with fresh corn, fava beans and melted taleggio, five semolina gnocchi and something labelled an "asparagus cresenza tramezzino". Not pictured was the best of the lot, a small mixed salad topped with buratta. Given that a tramezzino is a simple triple-decker (an Italian club sandwich) the misshapen bread roll seemed rather bizarre. And not particularly good. The other items were mostly good if not great.

We also tried a pizza with spring onions and asparagus. While the cook was definitely working towards a Tuscan-style pizza, he was also obviously hampered by the lack of a proper pizza oven; it was doughy rather than crispy.

The staff were personable, attentive, young and willing to chat about the restaurant. So it was a pleasant meal overall, although I can see that the kitchen needs some time to perfect their menu. Possibly in six months or a year it'll be time to re-evaluate Uva.

In the meantime, I can see that the Lower Haight is slowly changing. Not sure I'm happy about that, but it won't stop me ordering a glass of Primitivo.

Uva Enoteca
568 Haight Street
San Francisco
415.829.2024