The Che Fico Team Goes Fine Dining with Waterfront Restaurant Via Aurelia

For Via Aurelia, Nayfeld and Brewer again tapped frequent design collaborator Jon de la Cruz of DLC-ID. While Che Fico leans into its previous life as an auto body shop with industrial touches, Via Aurelia is decidedly softer, swathed in gentle yellows, blues, and greens, set against the background of China Basin Park and, past it, the Bay and Oracle Park. The team also worked with Marisa Gray of Tableau Gray to consult on the restaurant as an art curator. She sourced artists such as Windy Chien to create a custom knot piece meant to evoke the skyline of Florence, as well as other artists to create custom ceramic lamps for the bar and plateware.

For Nayfeld and Brewer, who are also behind Che Fico Pizzeria and Bubbelah in Menlo Park, the restaurant offers a new avenue for their cooking. The pair both have experience working in upscale restaurants, but haven’t had a chance to explore it as restaurateurs. “Maybe it doesn’t want to be a three-Michelin-star restaurant, this little jewel box, but also maybe it’s not this raucous punk rock kind of thing,” Nayfeld says. “It’s refined cuisine, but not pretentious; food that is recognizable as food, someplace that you can go eat every week … but also a place where you come and celebrate your anniversary, a place where you have holiday dinners, a place where you have a first date, those kinds of things.”

Via Aurelia will broadly focus on Tuscan cuisine, but Nayfeld is most interested in exploring some lesser-known regional dishes and introducing them to the Bay Area. The restaurant will, of course, showcase some Tuscan classics, such as bistecca alla Fiorentina — here, an American wagyu porterhouse version — and panzanella. There are also hearty pastas like the pappardelle with wild boar ragu and pici all’aglione featuring house-made noodles in an heirloom tomato sauce that is simmered over seven hours. However, it will also showcase more region-specific dishes from Tuscany’s coastline, as well as the other microclimates that make up the region.

Nayfeld points to dishes like the sformato di funghi as his departure from those expected takes. While he was familiar with the custard dish, in Nayfeld’s exploration of Tuscany, he found different flavor profiles of the dish, from dry preparations with vegetables to more soup-like takes. At Via Aurelia, the dish will evolve through the seasons; at opening, it will feature a chanterelle custard at the center, with a veil of pecorino Toscano cheese over it and Brentwood corn soup surrounding the custard. Topped with Parmigiano foam along the edge, it’s an all-white, monochromatic dish, but it gives diners a “moment of exploration,” he says. “Part of the art is finding ways to express the art on the plate, but also having these moments of delight,” Nayfeld says. “But for me, what’s more important than anything is never getting away from the fact that it has to be the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten first.”

Also expect line-caught black cod with braised leeks and potatoes, a dish with roots on the Tuscan coastline, alongside raw dishes inspired by colatura di alici, an Italian-made fish sauce. In his travels, Nayfeld would see raw fish preparations with locally made tamari; it doesn’t present as Japanese food, he says, but the flavor profile was certainly a familiar, natural pairing. The tatara di tonno is a tartare-esque dish featuring chopped dry-aged bluefin tuna belly seasoned with Tuscan tamari and served with trout roe and cuore di tonno, or tuna hearts preserved in salt, shaved on top. As the year progresses, the restaurant will shift with the seasons, moving into game preparations like duck and wild boar paired with fruit; with winter, the menu will seafood options coming into play; and in spring, elements like suckling pig and spring vegetables will become more prominent.

Alongside the a la carte options, Via Aurelia will also offer a five- to seven-course tasting menu for $155 with an optional wine pairing. The wine program will be 650 selections deep, curated by wine director Jason Alexander, featuring vintage wines from Tuscany and Italy, along with options from France and California. Lunch is set to debut in the coming months, and an all-weather patio will feature views of the park and water. As Brewer and Nayfeld prepare to open, they’re excited to flex a different side of their skillset and bring something new to the neighborhood. “Long-term, this will be a great restaurant that complements this entire neighborhood,” Brewer says. “David and I always said, ‘Great, this is our opportunity to go a little bit more refined.’ We have that skill set, and for us, it’s exciting to do something different. Now, let’s do it our own way.”

Via Aurelia (300 Toni Stone Xing, Suite A, San Francisco) debuts on Tuesday, September 30, and is open for dinner nightly 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Reservations are available via OpenTable.