Novato's Boca Pizzeria to Open at the Village at Corte Madera

It took about as long as it takes to have a baby, but the wait was worth it.  Novato’s managing partners and owners of Boca Pizzeria & Wine Bar will deliver a second location to the Village at Corte Madera shopping center before the end of the year.

Scoop has been sitting on the dish on the second Boca for a long time, and we’re happy to report the details. The more than 200-seat restaurant at the Village will be housed in the space that once was leased to the Sharper Image and most recently a short-lived furniture store.

Like the Novato location run by Shah Bahreyni and chef Sam Ramadan, this Boca will feature artisan, Neapolitan pizzas, fresh pastas, meat, poultry and fish entrees, salads and appetizers. Once again, they will have an Italian-imported wood-fired pizza oven, made by Mugnaini.

The design — rustic, using salvaged wood and industrial touches — will be by renowned restaurant designer Michael Brennan.

As with the Novato location, which is almost a year old, the staff will serve lunch and dinner seven days a week. Unlike Novato, it will have a full liquor license plus the all-California wine-on-tap system. Also expect an extensive assortment of bar bites.

We had to ask Bahreyni, why Corte Madera and not Sausalito or Mill Valley? He said it’s a great opportunity for the Boca concept and it will be near two other restaurants that have done very well, Boudin Sourdough Bakery & Café and the  Cheesecake Factory.

Change also is coming to the location of Boca Pizzeria. In a couple of weeks, Saturday and Sunday brunch will be added to the menu. More importantly, Bahreyni says they will expand the Novato restaurant into the space adjacent to it in the shopping center. At present they have 80 seats inside and 70 outside, but the patio seating is lost in bad weather. The expansion into an unleased space will give them 70 more seats.

When that happens, they’ll seek a full liquor license for the Novato Boca. 

Identity Change at Pasta Moto

Sometimes if a restaurant concept doesn’t work, the owners fold up their tent and steal away. That’s not the case with in the Hamilton Marketplace shopping center, which opened in 2009.

The quick-service pasta restaurant, owned by a family-restaurant group from Norwalk, Conn., closed suddenly on May 4, but in six weeks it will reopen with a new concept and new name, says Michael Pirraglia of the ownership group.

“Our customers told us what they wanted, so we will be a full service restaurant, named Tavola," he said. "We will present food that is part of the ‘farm to table,’ movement.”

Pirraglia said the system of wine by the taste and glass will stay but it will be behind a bar with bartender service.

The original Pasta Moto is in the San Francisco Centre in San Francisco and opened in 2006. Pirraglia said it was doing fine.

We got a sneak peek at Tavola’s menu and it seems more in tune with Marin sensibilities. It features house-picked vegetables from Green String Farms in Petaluma, spicy roasted nuts and lemon-cured olives for small bites. The pastas go beyond the pedestrian to ones with fennel sausage and rapini, or a linguine with cockles, pancetta and cherry tomatoes.

When it comes to entrees, chicken cooked under a brick with pasta may tempt palates as well as a grass-fed strip steak with Tuscan fries. There are also pizzas and at lunch panini. Dessert is a trip to Italy with tiramisu, canoli and zeppoli. Prices have not been set.