North Beach’s renaissance shows no sign of slowing.
Over the past year, one of San Francisco’s most bohemian neighborhoods has witnessed opening after opening, with new bars and restaurants adding to an already dense constellation of nightlife spots. And in a couple of months, one of North Beach’s most storied venues will return from an 18-month closure.
Having announced plans for a renovation (opens in new tab) in August 2024, the raucous tapas bar and speakeasy 15 Romolo is getting ready to reopen this spring.
“We’re coming up on 28 years,” owner Jon Gasparini says, noting that the 114-year-old building’s plumbing and electrical systems needed major upgrades. He almost walked away from the project last year when the lease was up, but felt such an affinity for 15 Romolo — his first bar, which in 1998 took over a space that formerly housed a Basque restaurant — that he and his wife decided to renew.
They’ve spent months removing wires from old speakers, refinishing the mahogany-covered walls one panel at a time, and generally peeling back the layers to reveal what Gasparini calls Romolo 1.0. “We’re approaching legacy territory, and we want to give the neighborhood something refined and lasting.”
Just off the busy intersection of Broadway and Columbus Avenue, up a side street so steep the sidewalk has stairs, 15 Romolo has long felt like an open secret. Too elegant and avant-garde to be a dive, it’s a highbrow, hair-of-the-dog kind of joint, where people who stayed out too late the night before might plunge headlong into recovery mode over Pimm’s cups and pitchers of sangria or enjoy a “waffle shot” made with rum and coffee liqueur (in lieu of maple syrup), dusted with powdered sugar.
It was a speakeasy-style bar long before the late-aughts speakeasy craze. | Source: Courtesy 15 Romolo
Years of hedonism took their toll on the space, Gasparini says, and the dining room has been “severely beaten up.” He plans to reopen with a more technique-driven food and beverage program and a more distinguished approach to hospitality, envisioning 15 Romolo as a peer of such San Francisco institutions as Buena Vista Cafe, Vesuvio, or Tosca Cafe, all of which have been around more than 75 years. “I almost hate to say this, but it’ll be a bit more adult,” he says.
He’s hoping to welcome customers back by mid-March. “I’m being very aggressive, and my wife is mad at me about that,” Gasparini says. “There are some behind-the-scenes things we need to work out.”
The 15 Romolo restoration is not the only project he’s working on. With another partner, Gasparini is working to turn part of the longtime SoMa headquarters of his mobile cocktail service Rye on the Road (opens in new tab) into a public-facing tasting bar. The concrete-and-timber former warehouse has hosted private events for the mayor and other high-profile clients. “I liken it to Sightglass,” Gasparini says, referring to the airy, light-filled mothership for one of San Francisco’s most high-profile coffee roasteries.
In the meantime, he’s glad that 15 Romolo is reopening as the neighborhood is on a palpable upswing. “I’ve had entities in North Beach for 30 years now, and I’ve never seen it more vibrant than it is now,” Gasparini says. “It’s the greatest neighborhood.”
15 RomoloOpening hoursReopening in early spring