Soaring, arched windows let in views of San Francisco Bay. A sprawling patio looks out on Embarcadero Plaza, where people stream by on the way to the ferry.
Yet somehow this grand Ferry Building space, one of the city’s prime waterfront restaurant locations, hasn’t been open to diners since early 2020, when MarketBar closed.
That will change Thursday with the debut of Lucania, a Southern Italian restaurant, coffee bar and cocktail bar. It’s the most ambitious project yet from the owners of A16, one of the Bay Area’s most prominent Cal-Italian restaurant groups.
Following an extensive renovation of the 3,000-square-foot property, Lucania takes its cues from piazza cafés in Italy, with an all-day menu and an orientation toward outdoor civic spaces and people-watching — at its best on days when the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market wraps around its patio. “We really love this idea of when you go to Italy, you have the main square and there’s the piazza-style dining, it’s indoor-outdoor, it’s open all the time,” said Kitty Oestlien, co-owner of the A16 restaurant group…