Exploring San Francisco's North Beach Neighborhood
Spend a day in North Beach, San Francisco's "Little Italy", where you will find delicious dining, interesting history and more.
Caffe Trieste
This small, vivid café (caffe in Italian) is said to have made the first espresso on the U.S. West Coast back in 1956. Beat writers, artists and poets were finding homes and haunts in North Beach then, and many gravitated to Caffe Trieste. The place is still humming, serving first-rate coffee and light snacks, plus live music, including heartfelt renditions of Italian opera. It’s a good place to start the day, but is fun anytime.
Caffe Trieste
601 Vallejo St., San Francisco, CA 94133, USACity Lights
Beat culture still lives, nowhere more strongly than at the self-described anarchist bookstore co-founded in 1953 by poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. City Lights, which sprawls over three floors, specializes in artistic and political titles and is very much worth a visit.
City Lights Booksellers & Publishers
261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133, USAVesuvio
Just across Jack Kerouac Alley, Vesuvio is home to chess players, artists, poets, neighborhood imbibers and literary tourists. There are few things finer than hoisting a pint of San Francisco’s homebrew Anchor Steam Beer on the second floor of Vesuvio and watching the world go by outside the mezzanine’s windows.
Vesuvio Cafe
255 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133, USASaint Peter and Paul church
Strolling around North Beach is a simple pleasure. The beautiful white-walled church and the adjacent vest-pocket Washington Square Park, make a great destination for a stroll, and offer excellent people-watching. Among other accolades, the church was the site of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe’s wedding photos (they were actually wed at City Hall).
Saints Peter and Paul Church
666 Filbert St, San Francisco, CA 94133, USAMolinari's
A superior Italian delicatessen and sandwich shop that is home to an array of sausages, cheeses and pastries in display windows, on shelves and hanging over the counter.
Molinari Delicatessen
373 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133, USACaffe Sport
Family-style, Sicilian restaurant offers good, garlicky food and rustic wine to go with house-made pizza, pasta and fish dishes such as petrale sole.
Sweet Sicily Italian Restaurant
100 S Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, USAThe Saloon
A good choice if you want to catch live blues music, The Saloon is one of the oldest continuously operated drinking establishments in San Francisco (opened in 1861). Housed in a three-story wooden Victorian building, it’s a good place to bend an elbow and lend an ear.
The Saloon
1232 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133, USAHave Story To Share?
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