Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

Back in July we reported on Illy‘s strategy for opening licensed Illy Espressamente cafés across Europe. During my travels in Portugal last month, I had the pleasure of encountering my first one in the unlikeliest of places. In the perimeter wall of the recently remodelled Praça de Touros do Campo Pequeno bullfighting arena, this fully [...]

Yes, this one is one of the classics. It’s a bright North Beach café that’s been open since 1988. They have many small indoor café tables with a lot of that “Cinzano”-like print art, clean surfaces, and East-facing glass windows. They also have an adjoining room that’s available for a lot of overflow on popular [...]

A popular, often crowded, slow, and somewhat under-tabled and under-staffed Parisian-styled café that strongly emphasizes French details. (It changed owners in March 2004.) A somewhat confused system for getting a table when they are busy — you’re not sure whether to grab a table yourself, to ask to be seated, etc. Black & white photographs [...]

This cafeteria-like spot opened along Trinity Place in late 2005. Heavy Illy branding, some Italian staff, and italianate sandwiches. This is the first location this small chain brought west of NYC. It has a massive amount of metal outdoor seating along Trinity Place and a long indoor space with window counter and booths. Why there [...]

This small Middle Eastern café near the TransBay Terminal (technically in the Bechtel Building) is easy to overlook. But that’s where I hope Web sites like this one come in. In addition to their espresso bar, they have a full-service deli … and they also offer one of the few decent falafel sandwiches in the [...]

This expansive Peet’s Coffee & Tea outlet has plenty of window counter seating for sipping your morning latte, reading the headlines, and listening to a tape loop of classical music “greatest hits” playing overhead. Additionally, there’s a good amount of public indoor seating in the connected atrium of the 101 Second St. building. They have [...]

This upscale, Italian-styled espresso café at the base of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel also serves your basic breakfast and lunch fare. It attracts well-heeled business types with a good international tourist contingent — given the hotel proximity. And it is one of the few places in SF where you can down an espresso Italian-style: [...]

If it weren’t for its own BART station, even fewer SF residents would know where Glen Park is. But a local neighborhood coffee shop, Cafe Bello, has quietly been making its mark as one of the premiere coffee destinations in the city. It’s just that few locals know it — let alone do they know [...]

Next to the Italian Cultural Institute, this large space opens up before you after walking through a narrow doorway. It feels like a former grade school cafeteria, complete with wood walls painted turquoise and white, mirrors, and small pictures and posters of Italy. Among dozens of indoor café tables (they have food service/deli counters located [...]