A famous pizzeria offering “SanFrancilian-style” pizza is gearing up to open a new store in the Golden Gate City, according to news reports.
Golden Boy Pizza, founded by Peter Sodini in 1978, often has a long line of customers waiting hungrily for the brand’s pies, which are square-shaped and focaccia-based. Tasting Table ranked Golden Boy, which currently has two locations—one in North Beach and one in San Mateo—as the sixth best pizza place in San Francisco last year and called it “pretty legendary.”
The Richmond Sunset News reported in March that Golden Boy would open a location in a former ice cream shop on Taraval Street in San Francisco’s Sunset District. No date for the opening has been announced yet.
Julian Sodini, the founder’s son, now runs Golden Boy Pizza with his siblings. He told Richmond Sunset News that customers have been traveling from other parts of the city to downtown San Francisco to enjoy his family’s pizzas. “So people now don’t have to make that journey.”
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“When my father was head of the ship, when I was a kid, he expanded out to five or six locations, but we ended up returning back to the one [in North Beach],” Julian explained. “Now, we’re trying to expand again. Hopefully we can make this time stick.”
Peter Sodini was 19 when he opened the first Golden Boy Pizza. According to the company’s website, he envisioned the perfect pizza as “a fresh-baked, delicious focaccia with pizza toppings.”
Julian said Golden Boy Pizza remains a family business for his siblings and himself. “We’re all partners,” he told Richmond Sunset News. I’m the eldest brother, so I have the most tenure. I guess you could say I’m leading the charge, but we all have a hand in it.”
In February 2024, SFGate called Golden Boy Pizza “the city’s favorite punk rock pizza shop.” At the time, Julian told the website, “We’re kind of punk rock in our values, so we don’t really do too much promotion or marketing….There’s obviously a lot of love today and excitement because we kind of kept it on the hush and did things our way.”
