Long-Standing Italian Restaurant Closes After 30 Years in Cow Hollow

San Francisco has one less spot for pizza and penne alla puttanesca: Pane e Vino, a neighborhood standby that served Cow Hollow for three decades, has closed its doors for good. According to a post on the restaurant’s website, the last day of service was August 26. “We are truly thankful and so fortunate to all our customers who have supported us for the past 30 years. Thank you to the community who embraced us so kindly and for the wonderful memories we created here together,” the post reads. “It has been a privilege being part of the ‘Pane e Vino’ family and we thank you all.”

Much of the restaurant’s longevity can likely be credited to chef and owner Bruno Quercini who came to the Bay Area by way of Bianzone, Italy. Quercini learned to cook at his mother’s elbow, the restaurant’s website explains, before coming to the States in 1969. He worked for a catering company in Florida and a restaurant in Marin County before becoming executive chef of Pane e Vino Trattoria in 1991. In 2002, then-SFGate and San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer praised Quercini’s “earthy food” and exceptionally garlicky fusilli with eggplant and smoked mozzarella, which apparently had quite a following.

The restaurant appears to have closed, along with pretty much every other restaurant in the city, in March 2020 and in April 2020, a GoFundMe page indicates Quercini started a fund to help Pane e Vino employees. “Like so many, we are facing difficult and uncertain times during the forced closure of all restaurants,” reads the page, which garnered more than $22,000 in donations.