For the past 55 years, Andre Armand has started his mornings by sipping the same, San Francisco-based, Italian-brewed espresso. Even with the arrival of Omicron, his plans haven’t changed. Armand, a fourth-generation San Franciscan and former antique shop owner, started drinking coffee from the historic Caffe Trieste as a high school student in 1956, the same year it opened its doors.

“There are so many regulars, like myself, who have been coming day after day, for years and years, that there’s social groups that have formed here,” Armand told The Examiner. “There’s all kinds of people here, and that’s the charm of this place.”