My spouse and I dined at Osteria Panevino for dinner on a
Friday evening in early July 2018. The restaurant is open daily for lunch and
dinner from 11:30 am until 11:00 pm (with extended closing hours until 11:30 on
weekends). You can make a reservation using the online Open Table system.
Osteria Panevino (which means “Bread and Wine Tavern” in
Italian) is located on bustling Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp District. The
restaurant offers seating indoors at either tables or its attractive bar, or
outside on the sidewalk beneath a canopy. Decor features exposed brick walls, wooden
barrel ceilings, framed black-and-white photographs, interesting lighting, wine
bottles and barrels, and unique decorative objects perched on floating shelves.
The restaurant offers an expansive menu of authentic Tuscan
cuisine; its Sicilian-born chef/owner has worked in the restaurant industry for
over 25 years. As we perused the menu, we snacked on house-made bread with
olive oil. As an appetizer, we shared one of the daily features, a unique
buffalo salad with prosciutto and olives. As our entrees, we ordered two home-made
pasta dishes (one Bolognese, one carbonara). Although we were pleased with the
quality of our main dishes, we each asked for half of our hearty portions to be
wrapped to take home. In that way, we planned to save room for dessert;
however, that was not to be. As we waited for dessert menus, we saw our server
taking off her apron at the hostess stand and departing the restaurant. (We
aren’t sure whether she quit, was fired, or just had some sort of emergency.)
No one seemed to pick up our table, and we were unable to order dessert or
another round of drinks as we had anticipated. In fact, we had to request our
check from someone managerial-looking after it was clear that it wasn’t going
to be delivered.
Although we enjoyed the food at Osteria Panevino, the way
our service ended left us with tarnished memories of the restaurant.
