North Beach Serenade - San Francisco

The cafe looked interesting enough from the outside to attract me to the door - and then I hear it. Six musicians like a sirens call pull me in. Four guitar players, one mandolin player and a slappin' stand up bass player. They're playing the early 60's classic, Runaway. No vocals, just a beautiful strumming, plucking and picking sound. I take a seat as freshly brewed coffee fills my nose. I'm in Caffe Trieste on the corner of Grant and Allejo in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.

As I sit there, - head a bobbin' - a silver haired guy drops a business card in my lap and moves on. I look at it. It says "Captain Democracy" and he's running for Mayor of San Francisco. He launches into a mild diatribe. "We started free thinking here" he says. Pointing to the ground. "Cal-Berkeley was the home of the atomic bomb, we need some creativity back in San Francisco! That's my platform." He turns and leaves. We all smile.

As Mr. Democray leaves the band breaks into O Sole Mio. The mandolin player is brilliant playing the lead but I can't help think of the recently deceased Luciano Pavarotti in this very Italian cafe.

Caffe Trieste itself is a 15' x40' coffee shop with a red floor and a brown ceiling. Painted murals of Italian scenery and black and white photographs of Italians compete with each other for attention on the wall. The coffee bar is to the right as you enter. I'm in the back of the small room in a cluster of mosaic tile tables and bent wood Italian cafe chairs that are all dis-arranged to make way for the six musicians serenading us. There's about twelve other people on the room with me. Heads bobbing, crossed legs and feet keeping time to the folky bluegrass jazz sound. This is JUST what I was hoping for when I walked up Grant St. A musical diversion. Something tuneful, not loud, raucous or rocking.

The mandolin player takes a break from playing lead and one of the guitar players takes over as the rest of the ensemble goes double time into a gypsy rhythm. Then they break, the guitars go pianissimo as the stand up bass player goes aerobic on his instrument pulling, slapping and furiously but tenderly pulling out bass notes....and then, ...a beat....silence, and the whole group kicks back in. The mandolin player takes control again, the tempo picks up, the volume grows and hearts leap to match the tempo and rhythms.

The coffee I ordered doesn't stop my eyelids from growing heavy. I throw a fiver into the tip jar and back my way out the door into the San Francisco night as the band breaks into a Brazilian samba. I sashay my way down the side walk. - Probably not a good thing for a straight male to do in San Francisco! :)

The band's name is Cafe American, they play Tuesday nights at Caffe Trieste.

Originally posted 9/15/07