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Lina Toracca, mainstay at North Beach restaurant, dies [...] she was a part of the life of San Francisco’s North Beach, part of the texture of the place, like the Lombardy poplars on Washington Square, like the bells at SS Peter and Paul’s, the Big Italian church. The place was always crowded — “old men, speaking Italian, who would go from there to sit for the day in Washington Square,” said Ken Maley, who lived in the neighborhood. North Beach was pretty much an Italian community 40 and 50 years ago, a place they called the Little City with its own customs and rituals. Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.