By Joe Bonadio

North Beach has always been a special neighborhood. A cloistered patchwork of low-rise architecture populated by a tightknit working class community, it sits, as it always has, at the chaotic crossroads of the city. Though known for its Italian flavor, it’s also a neighborhood that’s in many ways defined by those that it borders: Russian Hill, Chinatown, FiDi, Fisherman’s Wharf. We’re right next door to half the city–and naturally we have the best of everything here. To truly know San Francisco, you have to know North Beach.

Of course every great neighborhood is all about its people, and ours is no exception. North Beach is known to throw a mean party, and this corner of the city has become synonymous with events and festivals. But things like that don’t happen spontaneously. Think of North Beach Festival, or the SF Pizza, Bagel & Beer Fest: productions of that scale don’t come about without someone making a huge commitment, negotiating lots of obstacles–and doing a ton of work.

One of those people is my friend Nick Figone, Executive Director of the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club. One of the city’s oldest and most venerated social clubs, the SFIAC has anchored the eastern edge of Washington Square Park for over a century, and they’re the org behind many of the neighborhood’s favorite happenings (including the aforementioned Pizza, Bagel & Beer Fest, the handiwork of Figone and Tony Gemignani of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana). And at the end of this month, the SFIAC has another doozy planned.

The weekend kicks off on Saturday, May 31st with the long-beloved Festa Italiana: two days of Italian food, wine and music, it’s San Francisco’s only Italian street fair. On day two the club ups the ante with the running of the historic Statuto Race, now in its 104th year. It’s always a great weekend, drawing an armada of people to the neighborhood–which, as Nick Figone will tell you, is what it’s all about. I recently sat down with Nick to talk about Festa Italiana, the Statuto Race and all things North Beach. Lightly edited for clarity and length, our conversation is below.

Joe Bonadio (JB): Nick, how are you? I notice you have quite a bit of activity in the front room this afternoon.

Nick Figone (NF): Joe, we are a very busy event space here at the Italian Athletic Club, as you know. Today we have some international students visiting from France, and they’re learning all there is to know about San Francisco, Silicon Valley and the whole tech scene.

JB: Not a bad event for a Monday afternoon.

NF: And they’ll be back here for a Tuesday morning as well, so it’s a nice two day seminar.

JB: You do have a lot going on here at the Club these days.

NF: The river never stops running, is what I often say.

JB: I remember when we got started, it wasn’t quite like this. You seem to have really gotten this train up to speed.

NF: With a big team of people behind me, absolutely. That’s the way you have to do it in this economy, in 2025. Too many closures and not enough openings, and the way you stave that off is by staying busy, diversifying and bringing in as many different groups as you can.

JB: Well, you’ve definitely been activating the space. You also recently threw a Fight Night: can you tell us a little about that?

NF: Fight Night is another good example of diversifying what we offer. It was a first-time event for us: a live set of seven boxing matches, featuring amateur fighters across all the weight classes, from featherweights to heavyweights. They were three-round fights, and they were really well matched, good boxing.

JB: Any knockouts?

NF: No, they all went the distance, though there was one knockdown, which of course got everybody on their feet. From what I’m told, that’s the hallmark of good boxing, when fights go to a technical finish.

JB: Despite people’s natural bloodlust.

NF: (Laughter) Right! Despite everybody wanting that knockout punch.

So yes, a great first-time event for the Italian Athletic Club and its foundation. We raised money for all of the good things we’re doing in the neighborhood, as you well know from covering many of our activities and events. We sold around 275 tickets, and I know that many of the attendees went out to dinner in the neighborhood. So folks like Original Joe’s, Firenze By Night, Sotto Mare and Tony’s, among others, were certainly patronized before the fight. And though I was too tired to go out afterwards, I was told there were long lines at all the bars after the fights. So it’s just another economic stimulus for the neighborhood, and that’s what we’re doing here.

JB: Nice work. And I understand you had a distinguished visitor as well.

NF: Yes! Mayor Lurie showed up, and he happened to time it just right for our intermission, so he was able to get in the ring with me and greet the crowd. We even had him pull the winning ticket for our raffle. So it was perfect timing from our Mayor–who seems to be everywhere right now.

JB: Yes, he does. Meanwhile you’ve got a lot more coming up.

NF: We do: this coming Monday the 12th, we have our High School Sports Awards Banquet. That will be to honor the top high school athletes in a variety of sports, from women’s volleyball to men’s basketball, from track and field to soccer, baseball and more. Scholarships will be awarded, thanks to some of the proceeds from events like Fight Night that we’ve held throughout the year–and we’ll feed them a traditional spaghetti and meatball dinner.

JB: Naturally.

NF: Then, we’ll go immediately into the Festa Italiana and Statuto Race, which has become one of the signature events in North Beach every year. As you know it’s two days now, with lots of live Italian music, dancing, pizza tossing, an accordion sing-along and lots of fun activities for adults and kids alike. Tony will be doing his traditional pizza tossing, and then we have the 8K Fun Run on Sunday morning. Of course, it’s all free and open to the public.

JB: And what are the times?

NF: We will open the musical performances at 11:00 AM on both Saturday and Sunday, May 31st and June 1st, and it will run until about 5:00.

JB: Fantastic. Hopefully it’s a beautiful day just like this one.

NF: And I’m also hoping for low winds, because we’re going to have stilt walkers for the first time this year.

JB: Challenge round! (Laughter)

NF: Yes! If those winds do pick up, it could be a very interesting couple of days for the stilt walkers. There will be three of them performing, and it should be great for the kids. So we’re looking forward to having them out.

We’ll also be featuring NBC Bay Area and their NBC Sports platform. They’ll have a presence at the festival for the first time, largely because the 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Italy: in Milano and Cortina, in fact. So they wanted to have a meaningful media partnership with Festa Italiana, being that it’s the only Italian street festival in the city; it seemed like a natural fit for them. So NBC Sports will be having a little activation, something fun, something different.

JB: That’s great. The event seems to get just a little bigger each year.

NF: It does. Also, for the first time Lettieri & Co. will be taking over our food booths. Cucina Lettieri will be a new thing this year, and all of their products will be featured at the festival. We’ll have some new additions to the menu, including their Italian beef sandwich.

JB: I just love those things.

NF: And of course we can’t forget: for the second year the Salami Arch will be coming back, courtesy of Columbus Craft Meats. Just like last year, all of the runners for the Statuto Race will be starting and finishing beneath hanging 3-pound salamis.

JB: The Salami Arch, that’s great. (Laughter) Thanks again for taking the time to catch me up, Nick. I’ll see you at the Festa!

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Festa Italiana

Saturday and Sunday, May 31st & June 1st
San Francisco Italian Athletic Club
1630 Stockton Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
sfiacfoundation.org/festa