From Gold Rush beginnings, when Folgers and Hills Bros. opened in San Francisco, to the North Beach's coffeehouse scene of the 1950s, to Alfred Peet opening his first store in Berkeley in the late '60s, the Bay Area has long been a center of coffee culture.

Today, there are countless roasters making fine coffee. Among them are a handful who take their coffee so seriously that they travel to the source several times a year, to work directly with growers in places like Ethiopia, El Salvador and Guatemala.

To celebrate the Bay Area's coffee traditions, we've put together a list of places to explore the scene, from North Beach and Berkeley originals to brand-new companies, and even to restaurants that are becoming more creative with their coffee service.

But to put it all in perspective, it's good to look back at Folgers. The company was founded in San Francisco in 1850 as the Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills by William Bovee; his employee James Folger bought the company and changed its name in 1872. Like its counterpart Hills Bros., founded in San Francisco around the same time, it offered the convenience of packaged ground coffee to pioneers and Gold Rush miners who had roasted and ground their own coffee beans by hand.

Later in the 19th century, Italian immigrants opened coffeehouses in North Beach, most of which burned down in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. Opening its doors in the year of the quake, Savoy Tivoli is the sole survivor from that era, but Caffe Trieste lays claim to selling the city's first real cappuccino in the '50s.

However, coffee quality hit a low point Feb. 18, 1963, when a Chronicle front page story titled "A Great City's People Forced to Drink Swill" highlighted poor restaurant brews. That headline became a talking point for decades.

Things started to look up, when Peet opened his first shop in 1966. Many give the Berkeley coffee visionary, who died in 2007, partial credit for today's premium coffee infiltration of strip malls from coast to coast. He was responsible for training the founders of Starbucks, who served his coffee when they opened in Seattle in 1971 and eventually introduced his dark-roasted style to the rest of the country.

Part of what was new about Peet's approach was that he sold coffees from different regions. That eventually led to today's fascination with single-origin coffees from individual growers or small groups of farmers.

Peet's coffee was exceedingly dark. Ironically, many of today's trendier roasters are moving away from what they see as Peet's over-roasted style. They're experimenting with lighter roasting to bring out more nuance in their beans.

The Bay Area is also home to the Annex in San Leandro, which stores and distributes roughly 85 percent of the coffee that is shipped to the West Coast - with a capacity of 400,000 square feet of coffee.

Here's a selection of Bay Area roasters that represent the region's coffee past and present, and where you can sip their brews.

North Beach Traditions

Graffeo: This is one of the Bay Area's most enduring coffee companies. Around since 1935, Graffeo still has a large fan base of local home brewers. Though it doesn't have a cafe, the coffee is served throughout North Beach and customers can buy its light and dark roast blends at its retail stores.

One of the best places to try out a Graffeo cappuccino is Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store, a wedge-shaped bar and cafe where you can look out on busy Columbus Avenue or leafy Washington Square. Pair it with an eggplant sandwich grilled in an ancient oven.

Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store, 566 Columbus Ave., San Francisco; (415) 362-0536. Graffeo stores: 735 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, (415) 986-2420; and 1314 Fourth St., San Rafael, (415) 457-5131 or

Caffe Trieste: If you haven't been to Trieste you haven't fully experienced San Francisco coffee culture. It claims to be the first place to serve real cappuccino in the city when it opened in 1956. Beat Generation icons Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac did their coffee and cigarette thing here, and Francis Ford Coppola wrote much of the screenplay for "The Godfather" on one of the round tables.

Amid it all, founder Giovanni Giotta's family and friends still perform what they call "an Italian-flavored version of the Lawrence Welk show" about once a month on Saturdays (see Web site for a schedule).

601 Vallejo St., San Francisco; (415) 392-6739 or Also at 1667 Market St. and 199 New Montgomery St. in San Francisco; 2500 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley; and 315 S. First St., San Jose.

Peet's Legacy

Original Peet's: In 1966, Alfred Peet, son of a Dutch coffee roaster and importer, opened up a whole new world to American coffee drinkers by offering darker-roasted quality coffee beans with regional designations. Peet sold the company in 1979 but stayed on until 1983 as a coffee buyer. There are now nearly 200 Peet's stores.

The original location at Vine and Walnut streets in Berkeley is being renovated, but when it reopens in April it will include a room devoted to Alfred Peet with memorabilia, photos and recordings of him talking about coffee.

2124 Vine St., Berkeley; (510) 841-0564 or

New wave roasters

Barefoot Coffee: Founder Andy Newbom and his staff travel "to origin" - the industry term for coffee-growing regions - several times a year to taste, order and discover new coffees. While most coffees designated "single origin" come from a particular region or a mill, Barefoot pays a premium to farmers to grow and handle the coffee in particular ways.

The company has a new roasting and barista training facility in San Jose and a punk-rock Santa Clara cafe in an unlikely strip mall setting. There, coffee geeks in training can take free classes on brewing, tasting and grinding.

Barefoot Coffee, 5237 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara; (408) 248-4500 or The coffee is also served at Epicenter Cafe and Aziza, both in San Francisco. The beans are sold at some Whole Foods.

Blue Bottle: After gaining a cult following for its carefully pulled espresso drinks and individually brewed drip coffee sold at several Bay Area kiosks, Blue Bottle got a ton of buzz when it opened its first cafe in San Francisco's Mint Plaza last year. The company is due to open a new cafe in San Francisco's Ferry Building April 2.

Owner James Freeman, who has a roasting facility in Oakland, has a created a devoted fan club for his way with the bean, each batch labeled with a flowery description that helps newcomers appreciate the shades of gray between single-origin coffees and roasting styles. He also pioneered siphon coffee service here, a brewing system that is hugely popular in Japan.

Blue Bottle Cafe, 66 Mint St., San Francisco; (415) 495-3394 or Also at: 315 Linden St., San Francisco; and kiosks at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza, Temescal and Berkeley farmers' markets.

Four Barrel: Strap on your Freitag bag, hop on your fixed-gear bike and head over to this stylish cafe and roasting facility, which opened last spring in a former motorcycle shop.

Co-founder but no longer part of Ritual Coffee down the street, owner Jeremy Tooker paired up with some of the folks at Portland's venerated Stumptown Coffee Roasters to open Four Barrel last summer. The two companies join forces to travel to and purchase coffee directly from farms in Guatemala, Ethiopia and El Salvador.

The cafe's offerings are limited to a handful of espresso drinks and Dynamo organic doughnuts in flavors like lemon thyme. Drinks are made by baristas at ergonomic barista stands; plans are in the works for brewed-to-order cups of single-origin coffee.

375 Valencia St., San Francisco; (415) 252-0800 or

Ritual Coffee Roasters: When this cafe opened in 2005 it was one of the first roasters in San Francisco to be part of what some coffee folks call the third wave of coffee, with lighter roasts, single-origin beans and cappuccinos that could hold their own in Rome.

Owner Eileen Hassi roasts coffee in the middle of the cafe, and has set up a training station in the basement for her employees, who regularly compete in barista competitions. She and staff travel to origin frequently, sometimes partnering with Barefoot Coffee to purchase rare coffees.

It's a hip, yet friendly scene with lots of room to set up a laptop and camp out for the day; it's usually packed with people doing exactly that. Hassi has since opened two other locations.

1026 Valencia St., San Francisco; (415) 641-1024 or Also at: Flora Grubb Gardens, 1634 Jerrold Ave., S.F.; and Oxbow Public Market, 610 First St., Napa.

Restaurant brews

Bar Bambino: Owner Christopher Lossa tasted a lot of coffee for the Mission District restaurant and wine bar before settling on Ecco Caffe (, a certified organic and fair trade Santa Rosa roaster.

Diners can choose between a Southern Italian and a Northern Italian roast in espresso drinks. The Southern Italian espresso is dark and chocolaty, while the Northern Italian is lighter and fruitier. French press coffee and decaf espresso drinks are available in the Northern Roast only.

2931 16th St., San Francisco; (415) 701-8466 or

Spruce: San Francisco-based Bacchus Management Group owns several Bay Area restaurants, including fine-dining spots like Spruce in San Francisco and Village Pub in Woodside, and the small Pizza Antica chain. Last year, it opened its own coffee roastery to supply its restaurants. At Spruce and Village Pub, diners can chose among seven different single-origin coffee roasts, available by the cup, and a couple of blends, including a rich, full-flavored espresso.

Those who just want to try out the coffee can visit the marble- and subway-tile-adorned cafe attached to Spruce, where you might also be tempted by the gigantic, buttery brown-sugar-dusted oatmeal cookies.

3640 Sacramento St., San Francisco; (415) 931-5100 or Village Pub: 2967 Woodside Road, Woodside; (650) 851-9888 or