American Express

The Italian red, white and green have long been the colors of our neighborhood restaurants.

Now, with the weeks-old Citizen's Band in SoMa, red, white and blue gets its due. A joint venture from Cheryl Burr, Boris Nemchenok and chef Chris Beerman, Citizen's Band celebrates the breadth of American eats.

And Beerman expertly refines our iconic dishes without the fine-dining fuss. His frank and beans ($8) marries braised, oregano-scented butter beans with a grilled link of Fra' Mani Italian sausage.

His mac and cheese ($8) blissfully merges the dish's two classic styles--gooey and crusty--in a blocky sculpture topped with onion rings, black truffle shavings and Smithfield ham ($3 extra).

We ate our way through most of a recent menu and were thrilled with every dish: fried unripe tomatoes ($7) with pickled green-tomato relish; a buttery clam bake ($19); and a deeply satisfying short-rib pot roast ($20) with garlic mashed potatoes and baby turnips.

Burr's fine desserts--sour cream cheesecake ($6.50); seasonal fruit cobbler ($6.50)--scream Americana. Even Nemchenok, an inveterate Italophile, hopped on the Stateside train to put together a standout list of bargain-price American wines.

We hereby pledge allegiance to Citizen's Band.

Citizen's Band, 1198 Folsom St. (at 8th St.); 415-556-4901 or citizensbandsf.com; open Tue. through Thu., 5 to 10 p.m.; and Fri. and Sat., 5 to 11 p.m.