Vin Antico Reopens With a Farm to Table Focus

By Jessica Mullins

Downtown San Rafael doesn’t need any more Italian restaurants. 

That’s the mindset of Naomi Finerman, the general manager of the recently revived Vin Antico restaurant.

The eatery, which shuttered in January, has reopened with a new owner, general manager and executive chef. The soft opening was Friday, May 31, although the restaurant was open for special reservation-required dinners May 28-30 and donated portions of its proceeds to the Canal Alliance.

The new Vin Antico should feel very familiar to returning diners, with one exception.  

Since the restaurant is between the family-run Napoli and not far from Il Davide, the concept is no longer italian-focused, Finerman told Patch.

Finerman, whose arrived at the new Vin Antico after stints at Il Davide and the Panama Hotel and Restaurant in San Rafael, said the eatery will have a farm-to-table focus while still providing a similar menu to the last Vin Antico, including flatbread starters.

Mike Heffernan purchased the restaurant and building at 881 Fourth Street in San Rafael after it went on the market in January when the restaurant closed. Heffernan then approached Finerman about running the restaurant.

Finerman said she had been a “huge fan” of Vin Antico before it closed. “It was loved by so many people,” she said. “I wanted to see it come back.”

Also on board for the new venture is Executive Chef Megan Smith, who has previously worked at Fish in Sausalito, the Google campus and Yabbies Coastal Kitchen in San Francisco.

Vin Antico’s wine selection will also not have as much of an italian focus, but will continue to consist of smaller wineries and labels that cannot typically be found in markets. Some of the current wine selection was inherited from the past owners, Finerman said.

The restaurant originally opened to much fanfare in 2006.  Shortly thereafter it was typically a standing-room-only scene.

Entrees on a recent menu (the menu will be seasonal and change often), includes a DG Langley Farms pork loin chop with candy cap mushroom bread pudding, green beans and apricot brandyjus and a spinach and frissee salad with Hobbs Bacon, Point Reyes Bay Blue Cheese and an apple cider and honey dressing. Starters include chick pea and chevre croquettes with roasted red beet gastrique or grilled artichokes with preserved lemon aioli.

Farms providing the food include Peach Farm, Star Route, Marin Roots, Clover Dairy, Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Springhill Cheese, Triple “T” Farms, Iacopi, Jobbs, Hog Island Oyster Company, Two X Sea Seafood, Fallon Hills Ranch, DG Langley Farms and Bellwether Farms.

Their new website is still in the works, but they are accepting reservations online via UrbanSpoon. Also, Vin Antico will begin serving lunch on June 25.

Have you been to the new restaurant yet? How was it? Don't forget to review Vin Antico on Patch!

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