I lived in SF for a while and fell in love with a few places there, which I’ve commemorated with some original San Francisco art. I made prints from the original drawings and now I’m selling the original pen and ink pieces on my website at tebeau.com. One of my favorite hangouts in the city (one of Tennessee Williams’s “three real cities” in America, along with New York and New Orleans) is a place called Caffé Trieste, an old coffee house in the North Beach neighborhood. It opened back in the 1950s, just in time for the Beat Generation thing, and it’s still going strong today.
INSPIRATION FOR SAN FRANCISCO ART
The first time I went to Trieste was 1994, when against better judgement I followed the advice of a guide book and knocked back a quad shot of espresso. A freaking QUAD SHOT. What was I thinking? Laid awake till 4 a.m. counting ceiling cracks and hallucinating. Oh well. Had a lot of great memories at Caffé Trieste during my time in SF.
What made it so good? First, the history. Before I even walked in, I knew it was the first place on the west coast to serve Americans proper espresso drinks, from a real Italian machine. Trieste was a mainstay in what was still a strong Italian neighborhood (Joe DiMaggio grew up there), which then segued into the fertile ground of the post-war counter culture when artists and writers started moving in. On the corner of Grant and Vallejo, Trieste was right in the heart of it all.
And Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay for The Godfather right there, so there’s that.
Beyond that, the staff was welcoming, warm, competent and cool. Gotta love that. The coffee was first-rate (my fave was listed as something like “Kaffee Wien mit Schlag,” German for strong-ass oily black coffee with an iceberg-size blob of whipped cream on top. Mm. I loved it. And no one cared if I hung out reading and drawing all afternoon, indoors or at one of their perfect outdoor perches, surveying the sidewalk traffic. And the regulars? A cast of characters, especially during the week, when the place wasn’t flooded with tourists. But I never begrudged the tourists. Trieste deserved their love and dollars.
When you’re in SF, check out Trieste. You won’t regret it. In the meantime, buy some original San Francisco art to commemorate a great good place!
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