Awards & Reviews
2008 James Beard Foundation Awards
OUTSTANDING WINE SERVICE AWARD
Presented by Waterford Crystal
A restaurant that displays and encourages excellence in wine service through a well-presented wine list, a knowledgeable staff, and efforts to educate customers about wine. Candidates must have been in operation for at least five years.
Acquerello, San Francisco
Wine Director: Giancarlo Paterlini
What the Critics say about Acquerello...
''The ever-so talented Chef Gresham has taken her rightful place with San Francisco's greatest chefs. She has worked very hard in San Francisco's Best Italian Restaurant, Acquerello, with it's captivating cuisine perfectly executed on every occasion. This was the first year of awarding the Rachel H. Norman Award of Excellence to other than a chef of French Cuisine, and we congratulate Suzette for inspiring us to create this new annual award."
– International Wine & Food Society: Marin County Haskell Norman Chapter
"The romantic decor, with its yellows and oranges, 'makes you feel as if you're in Tuscany.' So does the 'haute Italian cuisine,' including such dishes as white-truffle pasta: 'It's not a scaloppine place'."
– "10 Great Places To..." USA Today
"This 50-seat restaurant is the only truly white-tablecloth Italian restaurant in the Bay Area. Few lists can top what you'll find here -- it's enough to make Italian wine lovers swoon -- and owner Giancarlo Paterlini is as smooth as silk when it comes to handling wine.
You can get magnums of 1995 Angelo Gaja Barbaresco ($900) and large bottles from such producers as Antinori, Castello Banfi and Bruno Giacosa. All the regions are represented, but the depth in the major regions is amazing. From Piedmont, for example, there are more than 120 red selections, and from Tuscany more than 100. The extensive California selections are also superb."
– "San Francisco Chronicle: Best Italian Wine lists
"Situated on an inconspicuous block near Russian Hill, it's the Italianophile's secret. Its serene room and respectful service are fitting for chef-owner Suzette Gresham-Tognetti's luxurious fare with a rustic accent. Discriminating regulars rarely bypass her ridged pasta with intensely rich foie gras and truffle sauce; profiteroles plumped with foduta and napped with mushrooms vie for most indulgent...The 600 wine list is a revelation, even more so if you let co-owner Giancarlo Paterlini guide you through it. Every aspiring sommelier in town should be required to study his elegant, informed approach."
– San Francisco Magazine
"Acquerello is in a class by itself, the only truly white-tablecloth Italian restaurant in San Francisco. Suzette Gresham reigns over the kitchen and co-owner Giancarlo Paterlini directs the flawless service -- including some of the best assistance in choosing wine in the Bay Area."
– San Francisco Chronicle: The Bay Area's Top 100 Restaurants - Full Review
"The small restaurant has a cozy feeling that's just right for leisurely meal. Service is low key and so are the patrons-mostly well healed couples, out for a quiet grown-up evening."
– Where San Francisco
"Acquerello offers the refined side of Italian dining, with intimate, romantic surroundings. Located on the edge of Pacific Heights, it was stucco walls accented with watercolors and starched white table cloth. Owners Suzette Gresham and Giancarlo Paterlini earned their reputation at Donatello, which they brought to prominence as one of the top restaurants in the city."
– Travel & Leisure
"Chef Suzette Gresham and maitre d'/Italian wine expert Giancarlo Paterlini have formed an inspired partnership at their jewel of a restaurant. They both believe in the refinement and civility and insist on the highest quality in performance and ingredients. A meal at Acquerello affords its patrons a moment of pure luxury, not necessarily of the elaborate or showy sort, but the quiet, deeply satisfying sort-perhaps because the wrapping on the package is Italian rather than French."
– Food lover's Guide to San Francisco
"In a short time they have created not only one fo the most interesting Italian restaurants in San Francisco but also one fo the best restaurants in any category. Like the delicate watercolors that decorate its salmon washed walls, Acquerello is a small masterpiece."
– Gourmet Magazine
"Acquerello (which means "watercolor" in Italian) is warm, graceful and elegant in a way only a confident Italian restaurant can be. The look is spare, as crip white tablecloths, gleaming silver and delicate crystal glasse s contrast with the pastel beauty of framed watercolors on the wall. Suzette Gresham cooks extraordinary Italian food while her partner, Giancarlo Paterlini, keeps the dining room humming smoothly."
– Wine Spectator - Full Review
"The straight forward menu at Acquerello has some real treasures on it, like portobello mushrooms stuffed with braised cabbage and smoked mozzarella; warm torta of roast onions, ricotta and oregano; pancetta-wrapped trout accompanied by crusty bread with garlic, lemon and sage; and lamb loin with basil-pine nut crust over Italian beans. Thanks to this sort of upscale treatment of rustic Italian classics---and a luxurious room and elegant service ---Acquerello has become one of the local gems".
– Bon Appetit
