Caffe Trieste

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." "50 Years of Art and Coffee" by Cecilia M. Vega, San Francisco Chronicle, April 1, 2006 Papa Gianni Giotta is known as "The Espresso Pioneer", both in Italy and America, earning the label by having brought Espresso and Cappuccino to the West Coast, thus starting the Espresso Movement seen today. The company's Licensing Program promises to open, on a one-by-one, "non cookie-cutter" basis, more Trieste locations in the SF Bay Area, Northern California, Southern California, the Southwest and East Coast areas.

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...
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