A 4th-generation guide to San Francisco from the woman who coined ‘third wave coffee’

San FranciscoCaliforniaUnited StatesNorth America

Nov 21

“People are forever mentioning how much it has changed.”

Like so many other industries, the history of the modern coffee market begins after the Second World War. In the United States, it’s commonly divided into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd “waves” of coffee—and that framework is thanks to Trish who 20 years ago coined “third wave.”

While her work with international coffee organizations such as The Coffee Quality Institute sends her to coffee-producing regions around the globe, Trish is at home in San Francisco as the founder and director of coffee at Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters. It was to this shop I beelined in between meetings one morning in the spring of 2021. A couple weeks ago on a WhatsApp call ahead of this interview we connected, and discussed the highs and lows of the Bay Area over the decades.

A 4th-generation native of the Bay Area, Trish describes her favorite nooks and neighborhoods in SF.

Filter: You're originally from the Bay Area. What has it been like to grow up there and now live as an adult in San Francisco?
I’m originally from San Jose, just south of San Francisco. I’ve lived in San Francisco now for over 10 years, but this has always been my city. People from the Bay Area call it “The City.”

As a kid, I never imagined I’d be sophisticated enough to actually live here. From a young age, I thought of SF as the epicenter of culture and California history. It has changed over the decades, but the funny thing about San Francisco is that people are forever mentioning how much it has changed. I mean, it is in a constant state of change. I’m the 4th generation of five in the Bay. If I think about how my great grandparents had to leave San Francisco for Oakland after their general store was demolished in the 1906 earthquake and fire—it helps me understand the culture of change here. And we think of the Bay as one place, not separate cities. Some of us even include Sacramento and Lake Tahoe as well as the South, East, and North Bay as the Bay Area.

I’ve seen the Mission District gentrified and change over the past 20 years, yes, but its culture still feels solid to me. The Castro is another neighborhood that has new restaurants and shops and people, but it’s still the Castro and could never be confused with anywhere else. The Haight (Haight Street & Ashbury) has the same vibe it did when I was a kid—exciting, a little dangerous, the best thrift shops, and still very hippyish.

Filter: What spots in SF hold a special memory for you?
The Legion of Honor Museum is special to me. When I was a kid, my mom would occasionally take me out of school so we could go up and see an exhibit there. My mother and I love this museum and it sits in such a lovely park setting, like so many other SF attractions.

Almost every place I go in San Francisco holds some special memory for me—either from when I was a child, or from the last decade here. Seeing games at the ballpark or the new Chase Arena, walking around The Ferry Building during the farmers market, getting a giant ice cream soda at Ghirardelli, or a perfect sandwich from Molinari’s. I thankfully have so many amazing memories to choose from!

Filter: What makes SF feel most like home to you?
Ocean Beach, the western end of Golden Gate Park and Lands End feels like home to me. They are on the list of tourist attractions, but those places are just like my backyard. I live in that neighborhood and so I walk those trails every day. I’m fortunate to see the most amazing sunsets over the ocean, seals, pelicans, and dolphins playing. It was especially beautiful after the springtime rains because it created a super bloom of native wildflowers along all those walks. It’s difficult for me to imagine living anywhere else in the city.

Contrast that with The Fillmore, the music venue that’s near the western end, too. There are so many great places to see live music in SF, but The Fillmore has a rich history that is represented in the show posters displayed on the walls of the place. I’ve seen so many shows there over the years. I feel like it’s my place.

Filter: What do you like to do for fun around SF?
Above all other things, walking in this city is my absolute joy. Second in line is eating. If you enjoy walking, and don’t mind one or two hills, or jumping on a bus when need be, you can see so many neighborhoods and enjoy diversity of foods and cultures. I can spend hours wandering aimlessly around Japantown Center or North Beach (our Little Italy). The North Beach neighborhood sits right up against Chinatown—the largest Chinatown in the US—and you can enjoy incredible coffee, dim sum, and hand-thrown pizza that rivals anywhere else on the planet.

I have taken friends to the new Tunnel Tops Park at the Presidio, which is another amazing open space in SF, and they loved it. Designers did a great job building this park to connect with Crissy Field that runs along the northside of the city. From Tunnel Tops, you can see the entrance to the Bay (aka The Golden Gate), Alcatraz, and of course the Golden Gate Bridge, without having to actually go to those places. Tunnel Tops might actually be the best way to see those sights. Sunsets at Tunnel Tops are stunning, and there are some great restaurants in the Presidio now.

The best quiet and green corners are in Golden Gate Park. The park has so many tiny gems tucked in alongside the larger magnificent ones. Stroll along the main drag with museums and monuments and then duck into a shady path and you’ll find the lovely and tranquil National AIDS Memorial Grove dedicated to victims of the AIDS epidemic. The Japanese Tea Garden is very close to the Botanical Garden, The Academy of Sciences, and the De Young Museum. But all around those large attractions are small gardens and lakes and dozens of walking trails that I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of discovering. There is so much to see in Golden Gate Park that it deserves some research before anyone decides to visit

Filter: What well-known things in/around SF are actually worth the hype?
On a sunny or partly foggy day, Coit Tower is worth the trouble. The vista is everything you hope it’d be. The city is much smaller than people realize, but it’s also made up of microclimates mostly because of the marine layer that comes from the west. The view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge from Coit Tower can be beautifully dramatic if our fog is doing magical things that day. If it’s a clear day, all the better!

Filter: What do you like to do to escape the city?
I love going down the coast from SF to Monterey or Big Sur. The drive along Highway 1 is incredibly beautiful. If you were visiting California and wanted to see the LA area as well as SF, I would rent a car (a convertible during the summer months) and spend two or three days on this highway, stopping at any vista, beach, tiny town, farm stand, or quaint bed and breakfast that sparks your interest. The coastline is gorgeous all the way!

Filter: What's one other coffee shop there that you really admire?
I can never get enough of Cafe Trieste, which is kind of throw-back, but also a must-see. It’s been around since the 50s as a fixture in North Beach. Handmade mosaic cafe tables, murals depicting Italy, and pictures of the cafe’s original owner and guests enjoying sing-alongs in the early years, adorn the walls. Coffee is deeply roasted and there aren’t a lot of bells and whistles. It’s a classic cafe from the middle of the last century, and you can imagine beatnik poets scribbling away in their notebooks as they enjoy an espresso there. Get a cannoli and don’t ask for coconut milk in your cappuccino.

Filter: You founded Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters. What has that experience been like?
Wrecking Ball cafe has exceeded my expectations. As a middle-class kid from the suburbs, I never could have imagined that I would be here doing this. And I’m so grateful to the neighborhood for supporting the cafe when we struggled to serve during the pandemic. I’m indebted to the staff for doing what needed to be done to keep the coffee flowing. I love the street that the cafe is on. I enjoy knowing the proprietors of the other small businesses on our block and in the neighborhood. It feels a little like a small town inside the larger city.
—

Visitors to SF know about the Bridge, Alcatraz, and the hills. What stands out to me about Trish’s take on SF is not the absence of these (she includes them!) but her hometown passion for the mix of neighborhoods that checker SF. “Above all other things,” she said, “walking in this city is my absolute joy.”

Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters

Trish Rothgeb

A 4th-generation guide to San Francisco from the woman who coined ‘third wave coffee’

“People are forever mentioning how much it has changed.”

- Just the Links -

New York City

Copenhagen by bicycle