Just how proud is Sal Annuzzi of being a San Francisco native? Enough to install a cable-car bell in his North Beach wine bar, Qua O La (opens in new tab), which is set to open Saturday. Annuzzi, who was raised in the city, as was his wife, chanced upon the wood-mounted brass artifact at a vintage store. “We might ring it for someone’s birthday,” his mother-in-law Linda Lazarich says, releasing the hammer and filling the high-ceilinged space with a cheerful ding. “Or for last call.”

Annuzzi grew up across town, in the Excelsior, but the family’s ties to North Beach are deep. His parents — first-generation immigrants — lived there when they arrived. It’s where Lazarich settled in the 1960s after emigrating from Croatia and where she met her husband, who was born in Istria, a peninsula on the Adriatic Sea. The Croatian-Italian Qua O La — Italian for “here or there” — reflects this hybrid heritage. There may be plenty of places in North Beach to eat Parmesan-covered zucchini fries or drink Negroni sbagliatos. But the neighborhood hasn’t had a bar or a restaurant specializing in Croatian cuisine since Albona Ristorante Istriana closed (opens in new tab) almost a decade ago.

Thrilled by the opportunity to fill that gap, the Annuzzi-Lazarich family in October took over the Grant Avenue space that was formerly the seafood restaurant Portofino. They transformed it by removing some 2,000 fishing lures from the ceiling and replacing them with punched tin, installing new kitchen equipment, and repainting the walls in sage and warm pink that take advantage of the afternoon sunlight. They filled the interior with heirlooms and knickknacks, including Croatian flasks made from animal hide. “They’re are on loan,” Lazarich says, meaning from her own collection.

North Beach’s already bustling scene continues to improve, making this project the embodiment of right time, right place. On the food side, that means a menu offering Croatian staples, including ćevapi, grilled sausages made from beef, lamb, and pork that’s seasoned with onion and garlic and served on pita with a roasted red pepper spread. Qua O La also plans to serve burek, a spiral-shaped, savory pastry made from phyllo dough — a cousin of spanakopita but filled with meat.

Rounding out the menu will be platters of dry-cured olives, Calabrian salami, shaved fennel salads, and a purple-blue pecorino cured in grapes, plus scachatta, an item of Cuban-Sicilian origin that resembles focaccia topped with sesame seeds and spicy salami. “They bring me back to my childhood,” Annuzzi says. “Just bread, a little mayo, mozzarella, and prosciutto cotto.”

There will be all manner of rotating cicchetti, a Venetian spin on crostini with a less-crunchy texture, with toppings including roasted eggplant or fresh mozzarella with sun-dried tomatoes. 

One binational and especially spicy element is non-negotiable. “Pepperoncini is a must on every board, in Italy and Croatia,” Annuzzi says.

But the most important thing is hospitality. “Whenever you walk into a bar in Italy, you get served these little snacks right away,” Lazarich says. “You don’t even ask. They just appear in front of you.” Warm welcome notwithstanding, guests at Qua O La may be amused to find a restroom mirror with a saucy message scrawled across the top. In a 1970s-style cursive, it reads, “Porca miseria, sei stupenda!” which roughly translates to “Goddamn, you look stunning!” 

Just outside the bathroom is an even spicier decorative element: a wall of framed photos depicting celebrities from Paul McCartney to Sophia Loren flipping the bird. “Vaffanculo & jebiga,” it says, the Italian and Croatian words for “fuck you.” However, “jebiga” can also mean “whatever,” making it less rude than its Italian equivalent. Or sort of?

“You want to learn the bad words right away in any language,” Lazarich says.