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1000 Bridgeway, Sausalito CA 94965 (See Map Below) Phone: 415-332-7660
Neighborhood: Caledonia St. (New Town). Website is here. Menu is here. Formerly called Caffe Trieste. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Price range (for Dinner) at time of most recent review: $7.50-$14.00.
Small parking lot (free) in back, metered street parking nearby, city lots nearby and free street parking a few blocks north.
Insiders Tip: Check out our special page on Parking Near Caledonia St. Without Getting a Ticket. It explains how to avoid the no-parking zones that catch some visitors by surprise.
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Taste of Rome
Fast Forward SummaryTM: Some locals see Taste of Rome as a coffee place, and they have a full breakfast menu and especially-delicious (albeit expensive) pastries. Draws locals for decent food, reasonable prices (for downtown Sausalito) and a coffee shop ambiance without a big-chain zen. Free wi-fi, live music some nights. A great place to stop if you're passing through Sausalito on your bike and want a light meal in a place where you feel like you're neither under-dressed nor over-spandexed. Both inside and sidewalk seating, and this is one of the better places in town to sit and watch the world go by. You order from the counter and then they bring your food, and if we have one criticism it would be that on some days they're better at efficiency than they are at courtesy. On other days, well, we don't have much to criticize! Taste of Rome was formerly called Caffe Trieste.
Taste of Rome: The Details
Right on the border between the downtown Sausalito area visitors frequent and the Caledonia Street neighborhood where local people eat and shop, Taste of Rome serves both constituencies well. They have free wi-fi, and their tables are actually big enough (barely) to hold your meal and your laptop at the same time. Seems obvious, but how many places offer free wi-fi and then give you postage-stamp tables?
Salads and sandwiches are good here, and hand made after you order them. The pizza is generous on good cheese, but light on sauce and with only an average crust.
They have a full breakfast menu, and a warm breakfast on a foggy winter morning with a good cup of coffee will cure a lot of things that ail you. Their pastries are expensive, but so good that our editors have been known to buy them without complaining -- this may be the best apple strudel I've ever eaten outside Germany. We're big on the value-for-money equation, so getting us to ignore high prices is hard to do!
The feel here is a cross between coffee shop and cafe. Some tables are packed close together inside, so at busy times the middle of the room is like a shared table for 12 instead of six tables for two. But there are other tables along the walls, and in nice weather sitting outside is the way to go here.
We find that how we feel about coming here varies widely based on the mood of the person at the counter. When they're warm and friendly this feels like home. When they're distracted, feeling overwhelmed or detached the experience is less pleasant.
Google Map Instructions: Use the "+" and "-" buttons to zoom in and out, the arrow keys to scroll the map, and the SAT button to see the satellite view.
Something else that people should know about Taste of Rome? Should someone open another place in town called Feel of Florence or Sound of San Marino, or even Aroma from Verona? Disagree with any of our suggestions? Please leave a comment below so our readers get the full story.
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