While I’m by no means a regular customer here, I’ve been a few times and always marveled at the apparent hipness of the crowd. Lots of grey hair, many books, lots of conversations. Not anything like the grad student-centric vibe at places like Village Grounds, or even the lively undergraduate and international scene at Strada. When I was ordering my cappuccino this morning I happened to look up and see that there’d be a performance here this coming Sunday by Pappa Gianni & North Beach Band. Pappa Gianni, Pappa Gianni, Pappa Gianni...
Huh, I thought, scratching my head. Caffe Trieste. Isn’t that the name of the cafe in North Beach that was featured in the SF Weekly last year, famous for its beat poets and for being one of the last bastions of ‘true’ Italian American culture in North Beach (and now in danger, I seem to remember, of being overrun by tourists and computer-addicted, wi-fi using, outlet-hogging, anti-social nomads like me?). As I asked and looked around the inside of the cafe I realized that, yes, this is the place. Seeing these photos, how could I have not noticed before?
It’s an odd feeling, in the era of rampant Starbucks cookie-cutter chain coffee shops, to suddenly connect this spot on San Pablo with the other location “over there”, when I always imagined that what makes the ‘other’ coffee shops special is that they’re one-of-a-kind. Isn’t tradition supposed to live under just one roof?
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