San Francisco's Ciccino, Celebrated for Handmade Pasta, Closes Its Doors

Ciccino, the Nob Hill Italian restaurant built around handmade pasta and the regional cooking of Emilia-Romagna, has closed after chef-owner Gian Marco Cosmi confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that rising costs of rent, utilities, and taxes had become unsustainable. He said he is currently facing eviction from the restaurant's space at 1400 California St.

"Like many local businesses, we've felt the pressures that have made it challenging to sustain operations at our current location," Cosmi told the Chronicle. Tablehopper was first to report the closure.

The trouble at Ciccino did not begin with the final dinner service. The initial reception was positive, with solid demand for reservations, but increasing overhead without financial backing from other investors forced Cosmi to close. The restaurant's finances were strained well before a single plate of pasta left the kitchen. Ciccino opened in November 2022 on the corner of California and Hyde in Nob Hill, months behind schedule: building permit delays pushed Cosmi's planned August 2022 launch back to the end of that year, putting him in debt with his landlord and, in his own words, hampering the business from the beginning. He had financed the entire opening himself with an $80,000 personal investment. "When I opened the doors, I only had a few thousand dollars in reserves left," he told the Chronicle.

"I'm young and that was my first experience opening my own restaurant," the 38-year-old chef said. Cosmi hails from a small commune called Macerata Feltria in Italy and cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens throughout his home country as well as in San Francisco, including stints at Acquerello and Rich Table, before staking everything on his own address.

The pasta program was what put Ciccino on the map. Chronicle critics praised Cosmi's cooking, highlighting its regional flair and the execution of dishes like ravioli carbonara and passatelli, writing simply: "Handmade pasta is the move here." The ravioli carbonara was singled out as one of the standout dishes at Ciccino. That critical recognition earned the restaurant a spot among the Chronicle's top Italian restaurants in the Bay Area, a distinction that made the closure sting harder for anyone who had been following the Nob Hill dining scene.

The restaurant's name, Ciccino, is Italian for "little piece of meat," a nickname given to Gian Marco and his siblings in honor of his late father, Angelo. Hints of copper and natural, industrial touches were intentional when Cosmi's wife, Lynsey Rose, designed the restaurant's elevated and rustic interior. It was, in every sense, a family endeavor built from scratch.

Still, this may not be the end for Ciccino. Cosmi said he is looking to reopen, with an eye toward a turnkey location — one that would let him focus on the cooking rather than absorb the kind of pre-opening debt that shadowed this chapter from day one. Whether he lands somewhere in San Francisco or beyond, the ravioli carbonara and passatelli that earned him those Chronicle laurels suggest there is still a table waiting to be set.