Set up a New York-style versus wood-fired crawl in the Marina and you run into a problem within about ten minutes: the neighbourhood does not really do New York-style. What it does, seriously and at a high level, is Roman and Neapolitan, and the two flagship rooms on Chestnut Street are as good an argument for each as you will find anywhere in the city. The New York end of the comparison exists here in exactly one place, it is on a different street, and it is open until three in the morning at the weekend. That is the crawl.
Three rooms, three completely different doughs, and two of them are on the same short block. Ask Karpo what has space tonight and in which order to walk them.
Stop One: Roman, and the One That Opens Earliest
Delarosa at 2175 Chestnut Street opened in 2010 and is the neighbourhood's default. It is Roman-style, which in practice means a thinner, crisper, more cracker-adjacent base than a Neapolitan pie, cooked longer at a lower temperature, and it holds toppings better as a result. Hours run 11:30am to 9:30pm Monday to Wednesday, 11:30am to 10:30pm Thursday and Friday, 11am to 10:30pm Saturday and 11am to 9pm Sunday.
It is the only one of the three that reliably works for lunch, and that is the practical reason to start here. It also does small plates and a proper list of Italian and Californian wines, so it functions as a full evening rather than a pizza stop, which matters if your group contains one person who does not want pizza.
Stop Two: Neapolitan, and the Door That Does Not Open Until Five
A16 at 2355 Chestnut Street is two hundred metres east and a completely different proposition. It is named after the motorway that runs through Campania, it cooks Neapolitan, it has won a James Beard Award and holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and its wine list is the reason a fair number of people book it in the first place.
The hours are the constraint and they are strict. Monday to Thursday it does not open until 5pm. Friday and Saturday it runs noon to 10pm, Sunday noon to 9:30pm. So on a weekday there is no lunch here and no early afternoon; the crawl only works in one direction, which is Delarosa first and A16 after five.
On the dough itself: a Neapolitan base is cooked fast at very high heat, which produces a soft, blistered, slightly wet centre that is meant to be eaten immediately and is not meant to be picked up like a slice. If someone in your group complains that the middle is floppy, they have correctly identified the style rather than found a fault.
Stop Three: The Actual New York End, on Lombard
Marina Pizza and Pasta at 2139 Lombard Street is the reason this crawl can be framed as a comparison at all. It sells by the slice, the base is thin and foldable rather than crisp or blistered, and it is the one address in the neighbourhood that behaves the way a New York counter behaves.
The hours are what make it genuinely useful: Monday to Thursday 4pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday 11am to 3am, Sunday 11am to 11pm. A 3am close at the weekend is later than almost anything in North Beach and it sits in a part of the city nobody thinks of as a late-night district. If your Marina evening ends on Chestnut Street at eleven and someone is hungry, this is a five-minute walk south and it is still going.
How to Actually Taste the Difference
If you want the comparison to mean something rather than just eating three dinners, order the same thing at each stop. A plain margherita at all three tells you more than three different specials do, because it strips out the toppings and leaves the dough, the sauce and the oven, which is what actually distinguishes these styles.
What you are looking for: the Roman base should crack slightly at the edge and stay rigid when you lift a piece. The Neapolitan should have a puffed, leopard-spotted rim and a centre wet enough that a knife and fork is the sensible approach. The New York-style slice should fold in half lengthways without breaking and hold that fold. Three doughs, three completely different physical behaviours, all within a fifteen-minute walk.
Practical Notes on Walking It
The geography is easy and the parking is not. Chestnut and Lombard run parallel three blocks apart, and the whole crawl is under a mile end to end, which makes this one of the few genuinely walkable food crawls in San Francisco. Marina parking on a Friday evening, on the other hand, is among the worst in the city, so arriving by car and then moving it twice is the single fastest way to ruin the evening.
On timing: because A16 does not open until five on weekdays, the sensible weekday shape is a late afternoon at Delarosa, A16 at five or six, and Lombard Street as the late stop. At the weekend all three are open from around midday, so you can run it in any order, and the earlier you start the better your chances of a table at A16 without a booking.
Practical notes
Delarosa, 2175 Chestnut St - Monday to Wednesday 11:30am-9:30pm, Thursday and Friday 11:30am-10:30pm, Saturday 11am-10:30pm, Sunday 11am-9pm, Roman-style, open since 2010. A16, 2355 Chestnut St - Monday to Thursday 5pm-9:30pm, Friday and Saturday noon-10pm, Sunday noon-9:30pm, Neapolitan, James Beard Award winner and Michelin Bib Gourmand. Marina Pizza and Pasta, 2139 Lombard St - Monday to Thursday 4pm-midnight, Friday and Saturday 11am-3am, Sunday 11am-11pm, sold by the slice. Whole crawl is under a mile; parking is the hard part, not the walking. Confirm hours before you set out.
Tags: #pizzanearme #marinadistrict #cowhollow #sanfranciscopizza #neapolitanpizza #romanpizza #newyorkstylepizza #delarosa #a16sf #chestnutstreet #lombardstreet #sffood #pizzacrawl #sfguide
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Ask Karpo first
A16 books up and its weekday opening is later than people expect, and Marina hours shift with staffing. Ask Karpo what has space on Chestnut Street tonight, whether the late counter on Lombard is still serving, and the walking order that fits the time you are starting.
