EVERYTHING ABOUT Fillmore Trattoria is decidedly Old Portland: the menu isn’t pretentious; the electric guitars on the wall were hung by the ponytailed chef/owner; and the glass of decent Italian red is just $7. Except this is a San Francisco import.
What a difference a few years makes for this former home to Noisette and then to Le Vieux, which was a short-lived effort from another set of Bay Area transplants. But a hometown is about the only thing that Le Vieux and Fillmore Trattoria share.
Where Le Vieux offered overpriced, stilted small plates, Fillmore is warm, bustling, and there to feed you Italian-American calamari and veal. This will not earn it any awards or the hearts of the forward-thinking, but since it opened in late April, the restaurant has gained a loyal following to the point that you’ll need a reservation on the weekends, or hope for a spot at the bar.
Fillmore Trattoria is an offshoot of owner Jack Krietzman’s Jackson Fillmore Trattoria in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights, which he’s run since 1985. It seems that not much has changed in all those years, and it’s the lack of pandering to the sprouted quinoa set that makes it charming.
