Caffè San Marco

The Trieste order here is a capo in bi, a macchiato served in a glass, with a slice of Sachertorte beside it. Caffè San Marco has been pouring it since 1914, and the room it is poured in is as much the reason to come as the coffee.

A café that is also a bookshop, a kitchen and a pastry counter

Caffè San Marco opened in 1914 on the ground floor of a building owned by Assicurazioni Generali, and from its early years it was more than a place for coffee: a meeting point for writers, students, artists and anti-Austrian irredentist circles. Its literary line runs through James Joyce, Italo Svevo, Umberto Saba and Claudio Magris.

The present concept is layered rather than standard, a caffetteria, libreria, ristorante and pasticceria under one roof. New ownership from 2013 pushed it further in that direction, shaping the bookshop, restaurant and pastry counter into a working cultural hub with a programme of events.

Marble, frescoes and a slow hour

The room is built for staying. Marble tables on cast-iron legs, black lacquered chairs, antique luminaires, frescoes largely by Vito Timmel, elaborate sculptures of the coffee plant and an imposing bar give the interior its Viennese Art Nouveau and Secession character, with stuccos, golden brass lamps and much of the original decoration still in place.

Its public life continues through the bookshop and the cultural programme: book presentations, conversations with writers, actors and artists, and concerts. A typical visit means a quieter table, a newspaper, an order made in the Trieste style, and treating the café as a literary room rather than a quick counter stop.

Order the capo in bi with Sachertorte

Start with the capo in bi and the Sachertorte. That pairing is the shorthand for the place, the local coffee format in its small glass and the Central European cake Trieste never gave up.

The coffee behind it has its own story: the San Marco branded blend is bought raw and processed by Sandalj Trading Company into an Arabica and Robusta moka blend. If you stay for a meal, the kitchen works from raw materials, homemade from pasta to desserts, with asparagus flan with feta cream, broad beans and hazelnuts; potato gnocchi with mussels from the Gulf of Trieste or spider crab sauce; and veal cheek with potato and chicory cream. The cooking is local tradition with Balkan incursions, supported by a cellar focused on Friuli Venezia Giulia and its neighbours.