When you walk into Che Fico’s newest venture — the beloved San Francisco Italian restaurant’s first pizzeria — the first thing you’ll notice won’t be the enticing aromas of garlic, melting cheese or baking dough. At Chef Fico Pizzeria, the thing that will stop you in your tracks will be the view of San Francisco Bay.

Located inside Thrive City in the Mission Bay neighborhood, the stunning new restaurant on the east side of Chase Center offers nearly 180-degree waterfront views to go along with new Italian dishes and some classics from the original Che Fico on Divisadero Street. Executive chef and co-owner David Nayfeld has created a menu of pizzas that include fan favorites like pineapple and Calabrian chile pie as well as brand new pizzas, including a stunner with lightly charred rapini, fontina and ricotta cheeses. The pizzeria is part of a rapid Bay Area expansion for the restaurant group, and one that stands at the forefront of one of San Francisco’s budding restaurant neighborhoods.

Paired with the glint of the sunset on the houses in the Oakland Hills and the majestic Bay Bridge that connects Nayfeld to his hometown of Alameda, this new restaurant is definitely a contender for some of the best views of any pizzeria in San Francisco.

Vodka sauce pizza at the newly opened Che Fico Pizzeria at Chase Center, on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024.

“I would venture to say it’s like the coolest looking pizzeria in the country,” Nayfeld told SFGATE in a phone interview. “It totally reminds me of Gino Sorbillo’s pizzeria on the water in Naples where you’re looking at the water and you’re smelling the sea water and enjoying your pizza. It’s just a magical feeling.”

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Nayfeld and his business partner Matt Brewer have been on an expansion tear recently. After opening the original location in the heart of San Francisco in 2018, the duo expanded south with Che Fico Parco Menlo, a traditional sit-down restaurant, in November 2023 and followed it up about four months later with Il Mercato di Che Fico, a fancy market with Italian imported goods and specialty sandwiches.

The partners........

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