Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

This corner espresso bar and retail space opened in August 2012, taking over a space that was formerly Bentley Carpet Mills. (It is also currently housing a pop-up clothing store called Taylor Stitch.) Large windows allow a lot of light in. The inside is also marked by a stark black + white color scheme. They [...]

Coffee talk in the mainstream press these days looks a bit like the telenovela: short-lived serials from specific writers with an individual point of view. One of said serials comes from Giorgio Milos of illycaffè in The Atlantic, and his installment today is on milk frothing: All You Need to Know About Steaming Milk – [...]

A couple weeks back we visited this café with Tim of espressophile fame. Approaching its North Beach location, you wouldn’t think it would be much different from the others nearby — but you’d be wrong. The espresso here is a real standout in the neighborhood, coinciding with the ownership change in late 2008 to Alex [...]

This classic, lively North Beach dive café serves espresso, sandwiches, alcohol, and simple hot plate dinners. It’s a very social place where the customers and staff engage in random conversation. They cover their dark walls (since made bright by new lighting fixtures) with photos of friends, family, and the occasional local celebrity visit. There’s also [...]

Given that our headaches with our Web hoster are resolving themselves at a snail’s pace, we’re itching to get back to business as usual. So we are carefully returning to publishing here (saving copies of our databases as frequently as possible) — even though we risk a future “blackout” at any given time. How better [...]

This Italian bookstore and import store has been a long-time favorite of ours — but not for espresso. That is until just recently (Fall 2007). It first opened its doors in 1880, making it the oldest store in North Beach. It has changed owners a few times since then, and its newest owners just added [...]

This combination pizza parlor (they serve square pizzas) and wine bar has numerous small café tables indoors and counter seating at the bar/pizza ovens. There’s also limited sidewalk seating out front. The décor is their namesake Roman film studios of Fellini’s 1950s, complete with movie posters (plus an AS Roma kit on the wall by [...]

This bakery has been in operation since 1914. While today it is Italian in name, like much of modern North Beach it has a distinctive Latino flair in how it is run today (even if its immediate location is more Chinatown than North Beach). There’s limited outdoor seating along Vallejo St., a wide array of [...]

Located in the original Bank of America (née Bank of Italy) building on the corner of Broadway and Columbus, this café/bar/restaurant opened just last month as a nicer alternative. It is a refreshing change from many of the North Beach Italian cafés and restaurants: they use particularly high quality ingredients for the neighborhood, and thus [...]

This old school, Calabrian-themed Italian pastry shop once had a touch for good espresso under its longtime ownership. They owner had been using Graffeo beans religiously since 1985. However, by 2006 they switched to Lavazza beans and began making inferior espresso (though the two aren’t exactly cause-and-effect). I’ve been unable to confirm with certainty, but [...]