Binu Bonu

You don't expect to find a 100-bottle Italian wine list tucked into a West Portal neighborhood storefront, but here we are. The list reads like someone's extremely personal obsession — Sagrantino from Umbria, Plavac Mali from Croatia, Lagrein from Alto Adige — and it makes you want to order things you've never heard of. That's a good sign.

This is a genuinely thoughtful Italian-focused list that stretches well beyond the usual Tuscan suspects. Piemonte, Marche, Sicily, Sardinia, Veneto, Friuli — the peninsula is well-represented, and the producers skew small and interesting (Bocale, Noelia Ricci, Quartomoro). The supporting cast from broader Europe — a Bodegas Muga Rosado, a Slovenian Teran from Vina Toka, a Croatian Plavac Mali from Frano Miloš — adds genuine intrigue without feeling like a gimmick. Gaps are minor: a deeper Burgundy presence would round things out, but that's not really what Binu Bonu is going for, and that's fine.

Sixteen to twenty options by the glass is generous for a room this size, and the range is real — you can go sparkling (De Conciliis Brut Selim), white (Deltetto Arneis, Quartomoro Vermentino), or red (Lagrein, Nebbiolo) without feeling cornered into something boring. Glass prices run $13–$25, which is reasonable for San Francisco, though the bottle markups behind those pours are less flattering.