Almost Italian Pizza at the new Flour & Water

When my vegetarian, data technology-hacker, friend Brian Aker (that's him, above) flew into San Franiciso for the JavaOne conference, I gave him some choices for dinner.  He picked Flour & Water, the new gourmet pizzaria which had opened in the Mission just the week before (2 weeks ago now).  Since F&W is in the middle of nowhere (20th & Harrison) we had to take a cab there, and a cab back ... be prepared.

When we got there, it was full despite it being a Monday night (a good sign I guess) and we had to wait for 30 minutes for them to clear a table.  We ordered some glasses of wine to tide us over, and I was very pleased by the wine list; while relatively short and high-priced, the red wines consisted exclusively of carefully chosen Italian wines, including a few which I've had only in Italy before.  Whomever their wine buyer is, he's flying over to Italy personally for this.  We started with a Morellino di Scansano, a popular table wine in Tuscany.  It was amusing to pay $9 for a glass of wine I'd purchased for 5EUR a bottle in Pisa, but someone's got to ship it over.  Later we had a wine from South Tirol, which must have been hand-carried from there; I've never seen Tirolean wines in the US, ever.

Unfortunately, Flour & Water was feeding people at the bar, forcing us to stand awkwardly in a corner and sip our wine.  If a restaurant is going to have a waiting list even on a Monday, they could stand to leave the bar open for would-be diners.  If nothing else, they'd sell more wine that way.

Finally we sat down.  We started with a green salad (little gem lettuce) which was really excellent; possibly the best green salad dressing I've had in a restaurant this year.  No picture, sorry.

Then to pizza, which was what we came for.  We ordered a pizza fungi (mushrooms) and a white pizza with multiple cheeses.  Both pizzas were Neopolitan style, with soft, chewy almost sourdough crusts.  Unfortunately, they'd gotten a little carried away with the toppings, and so the pizzas were a bit soggy in the centers; hopefully the kitchen will improve this with experience.  The white pizza also came (unannounced) with Rucola (arugula), an obsession I wish SF restaurants would get over, but it also came with hand-made ricotta, so I forgive them.

Brian and I were meeting friends at the Marriott, so we passed on dessert (there were three options). 

Overall, I'd say that Flour & Water is off to a good start.  It's not the best Italian pizza in San Francisco (Pizzetta 211 and Little Star are superior), but it's quite good.  Also, I suspect from the salad that the non-pizza entrees might be worth trying ... and that the food will improve its polish with time.  I might go back, mostly for the wine.