The exterior of Mescolanza on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023.
My family had just flown in to visit for the holidays and arrived on a late flight, leaving us aimlessly wandering up and down Geary Boulevard in the drizzly fog as we tried to find a place that was still serving dinner. We arrived at Mescolanza — a decades-old Italian restaurant that I had always wanted to try — and were seated almost immediately in a cozy corner booth. A Christmas miracle? We were about to find out.
It was elegant yet unpretentious — operatic music played over the speakers and decorative cutting boards adorned the walls over each candlelit table. The staff were friendly and personable, and the costs were reasonable — about $20 per dish. We devoured plates of carpaccio with thinly sliced beef, briny capers, parmesan and a zip of lemon juice, handmade gnocchi in a bolognese sauce that had been simmering for hours, and linguine alle vongole veraci with fresh clams so tender they practically melted into the pasta. At the end of the meal, our waiter poured each of us a glass of port on the house, warming our full bellies in spite of the frigid evening air. My mom and dad liked it so much we ate there twice again before they went back home, and they talked about it for months.
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So when they came back for another visit last week and we returned to the neighborhood standby, we were heartbroken to find a new sign taped to the front door: “We regret to inform our loyal customers that we will be closing on August 19th due to the rising cost of operations,” it read. “We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all our loyal customers and friends that have supported and patronized our family business for over 35 years.”
Owner and head chef Ruben Macedo, who helped open the restaurant at its first location on Clement Street and 23rd Avenue in 1987, said that rising inflation rates were one reason for the closure. The cost of imported specialty ingredients like porcini mushrooms from Italy are now double what they were a few years ago; even the to-go containers he depended on when the restaurant was doing takeout-only service during the pandemic went from bulk prices of $32 to $35 to about $110 to $120.
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“I didn’t want to offer low-quality ingredients,” he said over the phone Tuesday. “Loss of quality at Mescolanza … that’s the last thing I wanted to hear people talking about.”
The restaurant also struggled in the wake of three separate break-ins between 2021 and 2022 that resulted in destroyed POS systems, broken locks and shattered glass. Repairing them amounted to about $4,000, Macedo said.
The final blow was a significant rent increase, which is expected to cost twice as much at the end of Macedo’s lease. He informed his six employees of his plans to close the same day my family and I saw the sign on the front door.
“They were shocked, as I’m sure you can imagine, but they knew expenses were increasing day by day and were getting out of hand,” Macedo said. “My passion is cooking, and it has been for so many years. But all of this was just too much.”
Linguine alle vongole veraci, one of the most popular dishes at Mescolanza.
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Years before Macedo bought the restaurant, he was a janitor there who gradually worked his way up as he dreamed up ideas for new dishes. Eventually, he was promoted to helping out in the pantry, and trained in the kitchen as a pizza chef. When the original owner, Jeff Piccinini, left in 1998, Macedo and his wife, Maria, decided to take over.
“My kids grew up in the restaurant, and they used to peel the potatoes when I made the gnocchi every day,” Macedo said of his children Eric and Aldo, now 23 and 20. “Now they are grown up, and it’s kind of sad to see how life changes. I watched generations of my customers’ families grow up too.”
One of the restaurant’s biggest successes, he said, was being featured on KQED’s “Check, Please! Bay Area” in 2009. In the episode, Mescolanza is described by host Leslie Sbrocco as “a warm, cozy rendezvous” that “invites indulging and a little belt-loosening, but it’s worth it.” Vivian Stone, the legal administrator who recommended the restaurant, lauded its authenticity and her favorite dish on the menu — the pizzetta pere bianche, a pizza scattered with walnuts, prosciutto and pears, a mix of mozzarella and feta cheese, and fresh basil. (To this day, it’s also one of my own top picks.)
“It made a huge difference in my life and for my business,” Macedo said. “My family was so proud.”
In 2014, Mescolanza lost its lease and relocated to its present location on Geary Boulevard, where it will operate for another week before closing for good. Macedo has no plans to open another restaurant, but is considering the possibility of running a catering business out of his Ingleside home.
“I hope to see as many of my regulars as possible, but I just don’t want people to see me crying,” Macedo said. “I want my customers to know that I’ll miss them, and it’s been a very satisfying 35 years.”
Mescolanza, 3750 Geary Blvd. Open Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday, 5-9:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 5-10 p.m. Closed Mondays.