Vesuvio Cafe

Vesuvio Cafe has been pouring drinks on Columbus Avenue in North Beach since 1948, when it was founded by Henri Lenoir. The building itself is older: it was designed and built in 1913 by the Italian architect Italo Zanolini and remodelled in 1918, so the bar has occupied a building that was already 35 years old when it opened. Across a narrow alley stands City Lights Bookstore, and the two have long been linked in the story of the Beat Generation.

The bar was a regular haunt of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Neal Cassady, and that history still draws literary pilgrims today. The alley between the bar and the bookshop, once called Adler, was renamed Jack Kerouac Alley in 1988 and refurbished as a pedestrian-only lane in 2007. Leo Riegler, the long-time part-owner remembered as manager emeritus, died in 2017.

Part of the pleasure of a visit is simply sitting with a drink and thinking about the writers who sat here before you. The bar has been in business at this address for more than 75 years. It is a good place to start or end an evening in North Beach, and a natural stop after browsing the shelves at City Lights.

Opening hours and payment details are not covered here, so check a current listing before you go, particularly if you plan a daytime visit. It is best enjoyed in a small group or on your own rather than with a big party. Bring photo ID, as the legal drinking age in the United States is 21 and bars may ask for proof.

For a Beat Generation evening, start with the shelves at City Lights, cross Jack Kerouac Alley to Vesuvio for a drink, and finish at Caffe Trieste at 601 Vallejo Street, where Francis Ford Coppola wrote much of The Godfather screenplay.

Vesuvio sits at 255 Columbus Avenue, in North Beach. Caffe Trieste, the 1956 espresso house frequented by many of the same writers, is a short walk away on Vallejo Street, so you can build a literary tour of the neighbourhood with coffee in the afternoon and a drink at Vesuvio in the evening.