Scoma’s in San Francisco Receives Small Business Legacy Registry

Marking the 200th Milestone for the Program

San Francisco, CA — Scoma’s Restaurant was approved by the San Francisco Small Business Commission for the Legacy Business Registry. The Registry recognizes longstanding, community-serving businesses as valuable cultural assets to the city of San Francisco. The last round of approvals brings the total count to 200 businesses added to the Legacy Business Registry.

Scoma’s was founded by Al Scoma and his brother Joe. Scoma’s is a family-owned institution on Pier 47 in Fisherman’s Wharf serving “pier to plate” classic seafood dishes. What started in 1965 with two brothers, their mother’s recipes and a six-stool counter has grown to one of the highest grossing independent restaurants in the nation seating 300+ guests and located on a drive named after its owner. Expansion over the years includes a fish-receiving station to ensuring maximum freshness and a 46-foot fishing boat to support its commitment to sustainable fishing practices and local fishermen. Scoma’s has over 130 employees with union wages and benefits, some who have worked with the restaurant for 40 years.

“On behalf of our team and the family of Scoma’s founder Al Scoma, we are humbled by this honor and thank Supervisor Aaron Peskin for nominating Scoma’s Restaurant and the great city of San Francisco for Legacy Business status,” said Tom Creedon, President of Scoma’s Restaurant. “We congratulate the businesses who have also received this prestigious honor. San Francisco is fortunate to have wonderful Legacy businesses for all of us to experience.”

“I’ve worked for the Scoma’s family for 35 years and we have numerous team members who have been there even longer and for us, we are very thrilled for the family,” said Mariann Costello, Vice President of Scoma’s. “We are truly a legacy business that is progressive, never resting on our laurels, protecting the environment, adopting sustainable practices and we give back whenever possible. Thank you so much from entire team.” ”

About the Legacy Business Program
A Legacy Business is a for-profit or nonprofit business that has operated in San Francisco for 30 or more years. The business must contribute to the neighborhood’s history and/or the identity of a particular neighborhood or community, and it must commit to maintaining the physical features or traditions that define the business, including craft, culinary or art forms.

The registration process for the Legacy Business Program includes nomination by Mayor London N. Breed or a member of the Board of Supervisors, a written application, an advisory recommendation from the Historic Preservation Commission and approval of the Small Business Commission. Inclusion on the Registry provides Legacy Businesses with recognition and support as an incentive for them to stay in the community. The program also provides educational and promotional assistance to encourage their continued viability and success in San Francisco.

For more information about the Legacy Business Program, including a list and map of businesses on the Legacy Business Registry, visit http://sfosb.org/legacy-business.

Sustainable Wine Program

Scoma’s Innovative,
Sustainable Wine by The Glass Program

Thousands of Bottles Saved and Counting

Good wine comes from bottles with corks. Period. We all know that. But we’re all wrong. Especially when it comes to serving perfect wine by the glass.

Five years ago, as part of the celebration of our 50th year in business here on San Francisco’s Pier 47, we installed a state-of-the-art wine tap system utilizing wine, that is instead of being ‘bottled’ is kegged’ at source at some of the finest vineyards into 20 liter “kegs” to serve our 13 wines by the glass offerings. The wines once delivered to the restaurant are poured through a state-of-the-art wine tap system that is composed of high-grade stainless steel. This system has several advantages over serving from a bottle:

1. Footprint. It’s much more environmentally friendly because instead of using around 30,000.00 bottles with labels and corks each year, we’re getting that wine in stainless steel, reusable kegs! To date, we’ve saved approximately quarters of a million bottles from being produced.
2. Temperature: Our wine by the glass is always at the optimum and correct temperature for consumption. As you’ve seen countless times, wine by the glass served at restaurants and bars from bottles either comes from a too-cold refrigerator that’s also being used to store cream and perishables, or at room temperature because it is on the counter. Our system controls each wine at its proper temperature.
3. Consistent. Our wine is always perfectly fresh and suffers no deterioration. While wine by the glass from bottles is hit or miss depending on how long the bottle has been opened. Our wine is poured in perfect condition, every time because it is sealed in the keg by inert nitrogen gas which keeps the wine at perfect freshness throughout the life of each keg. When your bartender draws a glass out of the tap, it’s the same, ideal freshness each time.
4. Ease of use. Rather than grabbing a bottle that’s open, remove its stopper then pouring a glass, or worse, having to uncork a new bottle, our wine by the glass is always only a tap draw away. That means less waiting time at a busy bar for all customers.
5. Higher quality: Arguably, wine stored in a larger vessel, equivalent to 26 standard bottles, allows wine to develop more consistently and be showcased in optimum state.
6. Variety. Because of the efficiency, we can properly maintain and serve a higher variety of wine by the glass than we would otherwise from the bottle. Our offerings range from a very fine local Chardonnay to good pinots, all the way to a (eclectic- would remove) low-yield, low-production Cabernet from Alexander Valley. We have wines by the glass for virtually every wine lover.

Of course, we still offer an outstanding bottled wine selection, having recently been awarded the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for the 10th year running but as Wine Director Nick McGreevy notes, “while purists may not want wine their wine served from a ‘keg system’ from large vessels (and we have many excellent bottle options for them), the level of quality and consistency of our wines on tap is clear; certainly we try to offer something for all tastes. and a very nice mix for most wine drinkers.”

Scoma’s Mindful Supper II – The Producers !!

May 15, 2019   5:30pm

We invite you to join us for our second “Mindful Supper,” a series of events dedicated to showcasing our wonderful purveyors in the Bay Area who take a mindful and attentive approach to the food they produce and the environment in which it is cultivated.  This five-course supper, “The Producers,” features the bounty from local farmers, foragers, and artisans with a menu lovingly created by our Guest Chef Gordon Drysdale.  And as an added bonus, The Fishwives band will be making an appearance, serving up some raucous and irreverent songs of the sea. (learn more about the Fishwives Band )

Participants include:

• Nick Krieger, F/V Take Time (Commercial crab boat captain & of Deadliest Catch fame)
• Andy Griffin, Mariquita Farm (Third generation farmer and an industry “go to” favorite)
• Michael Recchiuti, Recchiuti Chocolates (Hand-making confections for more than 20 years)
• Julie Rossotti, Rossotti Ranch (Producing some of the most humane and highest quality meat available in the US)
• Kirk Lombard, The Sea Forager (Writer and sea forager and leader of the #1 walking tour by SF Weekly)
• Jim Reichardt, Sonoma Poultry (Fourth generation duck farmer widely known for humanely raising their highly-sought-after Liberty Ducks)
• Connie Green, Wine Forest Mushrooms (Bringing wild mushrooms and foods to the country’s best chefs and kitchens since 1982)

“As chefs, we sometimes put too much focus on what is on the plate, and not how it got there.  Hence, the creation of Scoma’s Mindful Suppers– showcasing the great minds and methods behind the ingredients that go into creating delicious and wholesome food.”  – Chef Gordon Drysdale

Since its inception in 1965, Scoma’s has recognized the significance respecting the environment and has taken a similar approach in its fishing and sourcing methods.  Only using the freshest locally-caught seafood and locally-sourced ingredients, the restaurant prides itself on maintaining a mindful way of running a restaurant and always being respectful and grateful of nature and what the ocean and land have provided us.

We hope you will be able to join us for this evening of wonderful food, drinks, music, people and conversation.

Scoma’s also offers complimentary valet parking.

Craft on Draft

Scoma’s Most Popular Cocktails on Tap, Served Fast and Perfect, Every Time

Batched cocktails are the way of the future. More and more bars are implementing it into their repertoire. Regardless of how close you are to your staff, or how much they respect you as the cocktail curator, bartenders take liberties with house recipes all the time. So, on one hand to eliminate consistency problems or recipe discretion batching is great. You don’t have to worry about one guest having three Manhattans from three different bartenders, with the same ingredients, three different ways. Therefore batching is great for quality control. Its other great benefit is for speed of service. In a restaurant of our size where we consistently see over 1,000 people a day during the busy season, we can’t have guests waiting for cocktails.

Meet Scoma’s Signature Cocktails

The founding premise of Scoma’s reinvented cocktail program from Bar Director Matthew Talbert, was to take a classic cocktail and put a modern spin on it. These three cocktails are the foundation of our Signature series:

1965 Manhattan

Any bartender can make a great Manhattan, but what makes it great is not just the bartender, it’s also the ingredients. We took that one step further by barrel aging the entire cocktail for one thousand, nine hundred, and sixty-five hours (to honor the year we opened, 1965) in new American white oak 10 liters barrels charred to a #3. We’ve been told many times that our Manhattan is arguably one of the best Manhattans people have ever had. Our Manhattan follows the New York recipe and area code: 2-1-2–two ounces of Whiskey, 1 ounce of vermouth, and 2 dashes of Angostura bitters.

Anchor Negroni

The name “Anchor Negroni” is an older iteration to what we now just call the House Negroni. It is our version of a classic Negroni that goes through a semi-seasonal and creative rotation. A Negroni has three parts, gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. We have done anything from using local ingredients, such as the “The Local 2”, which uses Bummer and Lazarus Gin (Treasure Island Gin), Spirit Works Sloe Gin (Sebastopol), and Tempus Fugit Gran Classico Bitter, to our current version, where we slow sous vide orange peel and vanilla beans in Campari at a low temp for 4 hours to infuse the flavors.

Pisco Punch

The Pisco Punch is San Francisco’s quintessential cocktail. It dates back to the Gold Rush era with a man named Duncan Nicol, the owner of the Bank Exchange which was located where the Transamerica Building now stands. This cocktail became so popular at his bar that he would make it in the back room by himself. Even his bartenders didn’t know what was in it. Our recipe keeps true to this tradition. We make it in the cellar and don’t tell the bartenders what’s in it. Everyone knows a Pisco Punch has Pisco in it, some kind of viscus sweetener like Gum Syrup, and pineapple juice. We tell everyone that’s our base and the rest is a secret. Come try it!

Experience A Mindful Supper at Scoma’s!

March 13, 2019   5:30pm

This marks the first of a series of “Mindful Suppers” Scoma’s and Chef Gordon Drysdale will be hosting throughout 2019.

Join us at a special five-course supper at Scoma’s in San Francisco highlighting Benziger Family Winery’s lovely biodynamic and sustainable wines, expertly paired with Scoma’s, Guest Chef Gordon Drysdale’s delectable dishes. Benziger Winemaker Lisa Amaroli will be on hand to chat about the wines, the winery and their practices and to share her thoughts on the pairings. 

Benziger has always taken a mindful approach to the biodynamic methods in which they create their wines, cultivating the land and vines with the best intentions of environmental stewardship and Scoma’s has done the same since its inception in 1965. 

• Mindful approach – Sustainable – Organic – Awareness
• Freshest locally-sourced and foraged ingredients
• And always respectful of Mother Earth

Scoma’s also offers complimentary valet parking.