Café owner and Lambretta fanatic John Quintos has opened his latest and most ambitious location: CAFÉ LAMBRETTA. I last wrote about it in 2016, so he has been working on it for some time. The SoMa café is a spacious 1,500 square feet in a circa 1913 building, with plenty of seating (both at tables and counters) and vintage Lambretta scooters and scooting ephemera throughout. Quintos even made an art piece: he took apart a Lambretta and made the parts look like one of those old-school plastic model kits.
Quintos is also behind Cento café and the Cento Coffee roasting label, Special Xtra and Special Xtra 2 cafés, and more. You’ll have all kinds of espresso and coffee drinks to choose from. Bonus: there are also beers. And wine!
There’s also a menu of salads and sandwiches, thanks to consulting chef Christian Ciscle (Wing Wings), from a chopped Greek or arugula salad (with pear, Marcona almonds, manchego, and sherry vinaigrette) to hot sandwiches (tuna melt or pastrami with Swiss and coleslaw) and cold ones too (chicken salad, or Black Forest ham with Fontina and arugula). If you just want a snack, there are also a variety of empanadas from El Porteño and house-baked goods like jalapeño cornbread and coconut-pineapple mochi.
Also worth noting: no Wi-Fi. Hours for now are Mon-Fri 8am-4pm Starting April 2nd, hours will be 8am-8pm. 101 Townsend St. at 2nd St.
A panoramic pic of the new Café Lambretta. Photos courtesy of John Quintos.
