{"id":26502,"date":"2025-10-28T04:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T04:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/26502\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T04:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T04:11:09","slug":"san-francisco-loses-north-beach-landmark-restaurant-after-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/26502\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco loses North Beach landmark restaurant after 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A beloved fixture of North Beach<\/a>‘s Little Italy is saying goodbye.<\/p>\n

After five decades of serving homemade pastas, espresso and a taste of “La Dolce Vita,” Mona Lisa Restaurant will close its doors Friday.<\/p>\n

Owners Filomena Azzolino Nevigato Florese and Maurizio Florese said the decision comes with mixed emotions.<\/p>\n

“It was time to support the next generation of the Florese family \u2018restaurateurs,'” they said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Their sons, Salvatori and Osilio, operate two separate North Beach restaurants, Mona Lisa Mare\u00a0e Monti and Steps of Rome. The family also owns the Old Clam House in the\u00a0Bayview.<\/p>\n

The couple emphasized that their staff\u00a0– some of whom have been with them for decades\u00a0– will stay with the family.<\/p>\n

“Most important, all employees will be assimilated into the other family-owned restaurants,” they said.<\/p>\n

Many of Mona Lisa’s longtime workers began their American journey there, with some going on to open restaurants of their own across the country.<\/p>\n

“At Mona Lisa, our kitchen isn’t just a place where dishes are prepared\u00a0– it’s a sanctuary of culinary artistry led by the skilled hands of our Italian chef,” according to the restaurant’s online site. “Our team is a tapestry of talent, united by a shared heritage and an unwavering dedication to preserving the essence of authentic Italian cuisine.”<\/p>\n

Born in Calabria, Maurizio said he dreamed of coming to America to share his grandmother’s recipes and his love of genuine Italian cooking. That dream became reality in 1979, when he and Filomena\u00a0– who immigrated to North Beach at age 10\u00a0– opened the restaurant together.<\/p>\n

Known for its lively d\u00e9cor, homemade dishes and the famous vintage Fiat booth with a view of the Transamerica Pyramid, Mona Lisa became a symbol of old-world hospitality in one of the city’s most storied neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

“It’s not easy to immigrate and assimilate,” Filomena said in a statement. “But anything is possible in America if you are willing to put in the hard work, give back to the community and always look towards bettering the next generation.”<\/p>\n

This article originally published at San Francisco loses North Beach landmark restaurant after 50 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beloved fixture of North Beach‘s Little Italy is saying goodbye. After five decades of serving homemade pastas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[20201,16727,20202,20199,20200,412,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-26502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-homemade-pastas","tag-italian-restaurant","tag-maurizio-florese","tag-mona-lisa-restaurant","tag-north-beach-neighborhood","tag-restaurants","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}