Caffe Trieste: Difference between revisions
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2004: Caffé Trieste becomes a chain, with a branch in [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] and two more in San Francisco - one on Market Street (at Gough) and one on New Montgomery Street (at Howard). |
2004: Caffé Trieste becomes a chain, with a branch in [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] and two more in San Francisco - one on Market Street (at Gough) and one on New Montgomery Street (at Howard). |
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2006: Caffé Trieste celebrates its 50th anniversary in April, 2006.<ref>"50 Years of Art and Coffee"</ref> |
2006: Caffé Trieste celebrates its 50th anniversary in April and rolls back its prices to 1956 levels, 2006.<ref>"50 Years of Art and Coffee"</ref> The August 2006 50th Anniversary Big Bash brings many celebrities and VIPs to the Caffe's stage, including Angela Alioto, Ron Elliott (of the Beau Brummels), Joey Reynolds, and many more, and 1200 people move through the small caffe in a few hours, while hundreds more celebrate at the block party outside! |
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2008: |
2008: Caffé Trieste opens in downtown San Jose, the first location in the South Bay Area. |
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2009: Caffe Trieste opens in the Piedmont Avenue shopping district of Oakland, Ca. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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Revision as of 16:28, 27 May 2010
Caffé Trieste is a chain of six Italian-themed coffeehouse plus one retail store in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
The Caffe Trieste was opened in 1956 by Giovanni Giotta (aka "Papa Gianni"), who in 1950 had emigrated to San Francisco, California, from the small fishing town of Rovigno, Italy (now part of Croatia). Missing the espresso houses of Trieste, Italy, Giotta opened his own cafe. Caffe Trieste is said to be the first espresso house on the West Coast.
Cappuccino
The original Caffé Trieste in San Francisco's North Beach quickly became popular among the neighborhood's primarily Italian residents. "It was all Italian people," Giotta said of the neighborhood, "But I got the American people to like cappuccino." [1]
A meeting place for authors and artists
The Caffé Trieste also becomes a convenient meeting place for Beat movement writers like Lawrence Ferlinghetti (still a regular) , Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, Bob Kaufman, Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, Kenneth Rexroth and Neeli Cherkovski, who lived in North Beach in the 1950s and 1960s.[2] Jack Hirschman, Poet Laureate of San Francisco, has also been a regular patron. The Caffe has been featured in several movies, on television and radio and in many photography books.[3][4] Francis Ford Coppola wrote much of the screenplay for The Godfather while sitting in the Caffé Trieste. Its is also the home of the internationally chronicled Caffe Trieste Saturday Concert, the longest running show in the City of San Francisco (since 1971). Giotta Family members Papa Gianni, Ida (matron) and children Gianfranco, Sonia and Fabio have set-up a musical vibe with their performances at the caffes and about Northern California and beyond, starting with their first radio appearance in the SF Bay Area in 1953. That vibe has attracted many famous artists and entertainment personalities that have visited or frequented the North Beach location: Bill Cosby, Joey Reynolds, Michael Douglas, Chris Isaak, Armando Peraza, Paul Kantner, Boz Scaags, and Ryan Seacrist to name a few. In 2009, for example, Israeli poet Roy Arad visited the cafe and wrote about it in his diary [2]. It remains a favorite destination for writers, artists, hipsters, neighborhood residents, and tourists from all over the world.
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watercolor by Don Moses 1980
Timeline
1956: Caffé Trieste opens in San Francisco's North Beach.
1978: Caffé Trieste opens a Sausalito branch.
2004: Caffé Trieste becomes a chain, with a branch in Berkeley and two more in San Francisco - one on Market Street (at Gough) and one on New Montgomery Street (at Howard).
2006: Caffé Trieste celebrates its 50th anniversary in April and rolls back its prices to 1956 levels, 2006.[5] The August 2006 50th Anniversary Big Bash brings many celebrities and VIPs to the Caffe's stage, including Angela Alioto, Ron Elliott (of the Beau Brummels), Joey Reynolds, and many more, and 1200 people move through the small caffe in a few hours, while hundreds more celebrate at the block party outside!
2008: Caffé Trieste opens in downtown San Jose, the first location in the South Bay Area.
2009: Caffe Trieste opens in the Piedmont Avenue shopping district of Oakland, Ca.
References
- ^ "50 Years of Art and Coffee" by Cecilia M. Vega, San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 2006 [1]
- ^ Mick Sinclair, San Francisco: A Cultural and Literary History (Signal Books, 2004), page 176
- ^ Ira Nowinski with Charles Wehrenberg, Rebecca Solnit, et al., Ira Nowinski's San Francisco, The Bancroft Library/Heyday Books, Berkeley, p.56/57, ISBN 1-59714-040-6
- ^ Ira Nowinski with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, et al., Cafe Society: Photographs and Poetry from San Francisco's North Beach, A Seefood Studios Book, San Francisco 1978, ISBN 0-916860-05-1
- ^ "50 Years of Art and Coffee"