Caffe Trieste and four other stores bring new energy to Oakland's Piedmont Avenue

August 27, 11:47 AMOakland Hills ExaminerMichael Libbey

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An Italian coffee shop with a rich history in San Francisco’s North Beach will open Monday on Piedmont Avenue, bringing a welcome cup of vitality to the Oakland shopping district.

Caffe Trieste, which started the West Coast espresso scene in the 1950s, will operate its first Oakland branch across from Peet’s Coffee and a few doors down from Starbucks and Gaylord’s, but with a traditional Italian approach to what makes a successful coffee shop – conversation and occasional live music.

In about six weeks, another high-visibility name will debut on the avenue. La Farine will open a branch of its French bakery in the former Piedmont Lighting store, selling pastries and other delicacies with a quality reputation established years ago by its original College Avenue store in north Oakland.

The arrival of these two newcomers follows the recent openings of three smaller shops, presaging a timely resurgence on the avenue. The new shops cast a ray of sunshine at a time when the clouds of recession appear to be parting – good news for existing merchants who have weathered the storm, and perhaps a stimulus for several storefronts that remain vacant.

The three newcomers include the Mercy Vintage Now clothing store, which opened two months ago, and two shops that opened two weeks ago – Arjan Flowers and Tutti Frutti Yogurt. All three are in the block between the Piedmont Theater and Fenton’s Creamery. In addition, a small restaurant is expected to open later this year across from Barney’s.

Caffe Trieste could well become an avenue focal point, with its notable history and a central location next to the city parking lot between 40th and 41st streets. The traditional Italian cafe is intended to be a hub for socializing, said Hal Brandel (right), the shop’s co-owner, along with café founder Giovanni “Papa Gianni” Giotta.

“It’s meant to be like your living room,” said Brandel – a place for conversation while sipping cappuccino in the morning, snacking on a panini for lunch, or imbibing a glass of wine at night, with an added taste of tiramisu.

This will contrast with the scene at Starbucks, where habitués tend to be silently glued to their laptops at all hours. There won’t be internet wireless in the Caffe Trieste, but there will be traditional Italian music in the background.

Some of it will be live music, since the café has obtained a cabaret license from the city. Papa Gianni, at age 89, still sings and will hold forth on the occasional Sunday with his North Beach Band, whose lead guitarist, David Sturdevant, is known locally to attendees of the Plymouth Church of Christ up the hill on Monte Vista Avenue.

The idea for opening a Piedmont Avenue branch came from Papa’s twice-monthly concerts at the café’s Berkeley branch, which he and Brandel also co-own. Brandel said the concerts drew a following all the way from the Piedmont Gardens retirement facility, which gave promise of a built-in audience.

Locating on Piedmont Avenue is a coming home of sorts for Brandel. His father, Morris, was proprietor of Ability Tailors, which operated from 1957 to 1997 just a few doors from the new café. Brandel also has some history in common with Papa Gianni. Brandel and his family immigrated to the states in 1951 aboard a ship from Bremen, Germany. Papa Gianni immigrated on the same ship, from the same port, two months later. He described it as “destiny” when the two met five years ago and decided to go into business with the Berkeley café.

The North Beach cafe attracted many of the Beat generation of writers, and it’s said that Francis Ford Coppola worked there on his screenplay for “The Godfather.” If you’re an author looking for inspiration, this could become the best place for creative writing in the city.

More about La Farine, Mercy Vintage Now clothing and Arjan Flowers

Links:

Caffe Trieste Piedmont Avenue: caffetriestepiedmontave.com/