the first espresso house on the West Coast. Giotta imported and roasted the beans, which was not yet common in American cafe culture. The cafe quickly became popular among the neighborhood's primarily Italian residents. "It was all Italian people," Giotta said of the neighborhood, "But I got the American people to like cappuccino." For decades, the cafe has been known to have opera singers on Saturday. Franchise locations were opened in Sausalito (1970s-2008), Berkeley (2004), Oakland, and Monterey. In 2016, Caffe Trieste became a legacy business in San Francisco. That same year, Giotta died. In 2017, a family dispute broke out over the management and future of the business. As a result, the Berkeley and Oakland locations, which were under the ownership of 4 Musketeers, S.P. LLC, severed ties with Caffe Trieste and changed the names of the business in 2017. They cited the family dispute as the reason behind the move. Meeting place for authors and artists Caffè Trieste became a convenient meeting place for Beat movement writers like Lawrence Ferlinghetti (a lifelong regular), Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Brautigan, Bob Kaufman, Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, Kenneth Rexroth, and Neeli Cherkovski, who lived in North Beach in the 1950s and 1960s. Jack Hirschman, former Poet Laureate of San Francisco, has also been a regular patron. In addition to other writers and poets, painters such as Peter Le Blanc and Don Moses and photographers Joe Rosenthal (Pulitzer Prize winner), Christopher Michel, Jimo Perini, and Christopher Felver, other celebrities counting themselves among the Trieste Aficionados include Paul Kantner, Jack Sarfatti, Joey Reynolds and Mal Sharpe. San Francisco politician Aaron Peskin is also a cafe regular. Local figures have discussed the cultural impact of the cafe. As described by Mark Bittner, "I think of Caffe Trieste as one of the last strongholds—actually the true center— of what made this neighborhood so fabulous." Tony Long, local journalist and author, described it as the "living room" of its regulars. Jack Hirschman remembered, "When I arrived in 1972, (Papa Gianni’s sister) Iolanda fed me for about 6 months because I had no money. Much later, before the official celebration at Koret Auditorium for my becoming Poet Laureate, Ida and The Trieste held a party for me first." The cafe has been featured in several movies, on television, radio, in magazines, and in dozens of photography, tourism and other books, ranging from local to