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Historic place

Tosca Cafe

242 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA

Tosca opened in November 1919, and Prohibition took effect less than two months later. Its answer was a brandy-spiked house cappuccino.

📅 1919–present🏛️ BarStill here
Open on the mapSlide back to 1919

The story

Three Italians who had come to San Francisco after World War I opened Tosca in November 1919, naming it after one founder's daughter. Prohibition took effect less than two months later. According to the Marina Times, one partner went to Healdsburg to run a brandy still and the others imported two espresso machines. The result was the house cappuccino of chocolate, steamed milk and brandy.

Jeannette Etheredge took over the bar on April 7, 1980, and ran it for more than 30 years, with a back room for famous regulars. In 2013 New York restaurateurs April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman bought it and promised to keep it as Tosca.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The house cappuccino is chocolate, steamed milk and brandy, created to survive Prohibition.
The cast and crew of "The Right Stuff" hung out here during filming, director Philip Kaufman recalled.
Etheredge told Francis Ford Coppola: "Come here anytime you like. I bought the bar."

Connected places

Vesuvio Cafe

San Francisco, CA
Same address

City Lights Bookstore

San Francisco, CA
Same address

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

Vesuvio Cafe

255 Columbus Avenue · 43 m away
Henri Lenoir opened Vesuvio in 1948 across an alley from City Lights, and in 1988 the alley was renamed Jack Kerouac All

City Lights Bookstore

261 Columbus Avenue · 59 m away

Finocchio's Club

506 Broadway · 69 m away

Condor Club

560 Broadway · 79 m away

Mabuhay Gardens

443 Broadway · 129 m away

The hungry i

599 Jackson St, San Francisco, CA 94133 · 145 m away

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Sourceshttps://www.marinatimes.com/?p=5239