North Beach, San Francisco · restaurant
Open since 1919, Tosca is where North Beach writers, directors, and regulars have always ended up — at the bar, under low light, while Puccini plays from the jukebox. The room is red leather and dark wood, absorbing decades without showing them. Order the House Cappuccino — a Prohibition-era brandy hot chocolate with no coffee — and the meatballs, and conversations linger.