The Garlic-Themed Restaurant In California You'll Want To Pack Mints For
It may not be the most appropriate date night place, but for over 30 years, a restaurant called the Stinking Rose has been a must-see stop in San Francisco. The restaurant, located in the city's Little Italy, North Beach, is an ode to garlic, the sticky sulfurous allium you either love or hate. It proudly proclaims, "We season our garlic with food."
The restaurant was opened in 1991 by North Beach locals Jerry Dal Bozzo and Dante Serafini after a visit to the garlic festival in Gilroy, California. (For those who aren't in the know, Gilroy is considered the garlic capital of the world.) The restaurant, which serves contemporary Californian-Italian cuisine, has over 40 garlic-themed dishes on the menu. You can start your odorous adventure with a "Gartini," a vodka martini with pickled garlic, work your way through appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pastas, and pizzas, and top it all off with garlic ice cream, a sweet and savory confection topped with chocolate sauce.
The pungent palace uses seven tons of garlic each year
One of the most beloved dishes at the pungent palace known as the Stinking Rose is the bagna calda, described on the menu as "garlic soaking in a hot tub," and "wonderful for spreading on bread." While vampires — who are famously repelled by garlic — might want to avoid it, those with a heartier constitution might want to consider the 40 clove garlic chicken. With this in mind, it's no surprise the restaurant uses seven tons of garlic per year. (Luckily, for those less inclined to partake in garlicky goodness, there are plenty of garlic-free dishes on the Stinking Rose's menu, including lasagna al forno and a pasta Bolognese.)
The restaurant has gotten a lot of love on TikTok, where pickled garlic was a trend in 2023, but other people have described it as touristy with mediocre food and high prices. A few diehard fans, however, mourn the closing of the Beverly Hills branch of the restaurant several years ago. For those people, to borrow another one of the restaurant's catchphrases, the Stinking Rose's Beverly Hills location was most likely "a stinking good time."