Nopa opened in 2006 on the corner of Divisadero and Hayes Street, in a building that once housed a coin-operated laundromat and, before that, a bank. Chef Laurence Jossel has run the kitchen since, built around the idea of a neighborhood gathering place: a dinner menu that changes daily, cooked over a wood-burning grill and oven with Mediterranean influences running through it.
Ingredients are sourced from Bay Area farms and purveyors — Dirty Girl Produce, Full Belly Farm, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, Acme Bread, and more than twenty other local producers. The two-story dining room is lined with ceiling beams and lit by candlelight, with murals referencing the neighborhood's jazz history and nearby institutions. The wood oven anchors the kitchen, and the pork chop has stayed on the nightly-changing menu as a fixture. Brunch has become a draw in its own right, and regulars describe the room as soulful, if tight on seating.
Nopa was a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant in both 2017 and 2019, with additional semifinalist recognition over the years for its wine program and service; the restaurant's chef was also a Best Chef semifinalist in 2010 and 2011.
Ingredients are sourced from Bay Area farms and purveyors — Dirty Girl Produce, Full Belly Farm, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, Acme Bread, and more than twenty other local producers. The two-story dining room is lined with ceiling beams and lit by candlelight, with murals referencing the neighborhood's jazz history and nearby institutions. The wood oven anchors the kitchen, and the pork chop has stayed on the nightly-changing menu as a fixture. Brunch has become a draw in its own right, and regulars describe the room as soulful, if tight on seating.
Nopa was a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant in both 2017 and 2019, with additional semifinalist recognition over the years for its wine program and service; the restaurant's chef was also a Best Chef semifinalist in 2010 and 2011.