The finest espresso in SF ...

[Tobias]

... used to be served up at Cafe Organica on Grove St. in the Western Addition. Anybody know what's happened to this place? I drive by on occasion, but it's always closed, and there is no explanatory sign in the window.

I know they had plans to open a downtown or SOMA place, but that fell through, and the Grove St. location has been closed for at least a month.

[nyclibrarian]

Blue Bottle. Hands down

[beer786]

starbucks??

[Robert Lauriston]

Caffe Trieste on Grant Ave.

[wally]

on Vallejo, I think?

[Melanie Wong]

Here's the locations page on the website.

http://www.caffetrieste.com/pages/loc...

I noticed the new Caffe Trieste on Market @ Gough in SF over the holiday weekend. Is it up to snuff?

[larochelle]

We popped in during the holiday weekend. I had a macchiato which was better than most but nowhere near my top 10. Michael had a egg breakfast sandwich and I had a panini, both of which were good without being outstanding. The food menu is very limited. Their pastries are from that place in the Mission that Derek likes - Diandra?

Since the space is completely new, the atmosphere is a little sterile. They did have soccer on the TV. And they will be having live music on weekends soon.

But there's no real motivation for me to go back - there's about 20 coffee shops on the walk between my house and Caffe Trieste - Cafe Du Soliel & Delessio have better food and Blue Bottle has better coffee.

[Gary Soup]

For once we agree on something. Not necessarily on Caffe Trieste (though no recent experiences would contradict that choice) but on the fact that it's not that easy for an upstart to beard a North Beach Old Guard practitioner of the art of pulling a goood cuppa.

[Emily Hope]

Yes, I was so sad when Cafe Organica closed, since they were the only good espresso close to the western half of the city. Now if I want it, I have to drive to the Blue Bottle kiosk (or Ritual if I want sit-down), which, since I live in the Richmond, means maybe once a week. (Although maybe that's not such a bad thing, since I was spending more money there every week than I care to tally...)

Things got a little weird there at the end just before they closed (no need to elaborate). For a while, they had a note on their Web site that said they would be re-opening this summer with new backing, but they've taken even that down. At this point, I've pretty much given up hope that they're going to reopen, unfortunately. I still drive by every once in a while, though, just in case...

[Louise]

Oh, no, another coffee question. Just in case you did not know, coffee is one of those questions that inspires very strong opinions on this board, like pizza, bbq, and certain very famous restaurants.

All I can say is, duck & cover.