Caffe Trieste sits at 601 Vallejo St. in North Beach. It calls itself the first espresso coffee house on the West Coast, opened in 1956. The café is a San Francisco institution and a hub for poets, writers and Beat culture.
Papa Gianni
Giovanni Giotta, known as Papa Gianni (1920–2016), grew up in Rovigno d'Istria, now Rovinj, Croatia, and emigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1951. Wikipedia says that when he first arrived he asked the priests at Saints Peter and Paul Church for help, and he took work as a window washer who sang on the job. He missed the coffeehouses of Trieste. In 1956 he took over a small business called Piccola Cafe and renamed it after that city. He imported and roasted his own beans at a time when most Americans drank instant coffee at home. "It was all Italian people," Giotta said of the neighborhood. "But I got the American people to like cappuccino."
Poets, opera and The Godfather
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was a regular for life. Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, Bob Kaufman, Gregory Corso and Kenneth Rexroth also spent time there. Wikipedia says Francis Ford Coppola wrote much of the screenplay for The Godfather at the café. For decades it has hosted opera singers on Saturdays, and the café still bills itself as "Coffee with Rhythm."
Branches and a family split
Branches opened over the years in Sausalito (1970s to 2008), Berkeley (2004), Oakland and Monterey. Caffe Trieste was named a San Francisco Legacy Business in 2016, the year Giotta died. A family dispute broke out in 2017, and the Berkeley and Oakland cafés cut ties and changed their names.
Visiting
The café's website lists hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Its annex retail store, two doors down at 609 Vallejo, sells whole-bean coffee Monday through Saturday and is closed Sunday. While you're in the neighborhood: Vesuvio Cafe and Lillie Coit's.