For The Bold Italic's "The Sipping Point," Nicole Martinelli fans out across the city in search of the kind of cappuccino that only a San Franciscan with a junior year in Italy under her thrifty-chic belt can truly crave. Martinelli caroms around Italian-style caffes: Cavalli ("the place gets my vote for the Italian café vibe"), Prima Cosa. From there she checks the skills of the Third Wave mafia at Sightglass ("the house Sumatra-Ethiopian-Guatemala roast is so rich it teeters on the edge of being too strong"). And ultimately to the old-school capp ― engineered by a Jordanian expat who did art school in Milan in the 1970s ― at Glen Park's Higher Grounds ("the foam and the espresso meet in a top-crease rather than proper cappuccino art but the espresso is assertive and passes my no-need-for-sugar test"). As a sort of milk-froth mustache, Martinelli appends a couple of home-style Italian recipes, courtesy of Prima Cosa's Giorgio Milo.
The takeaway: Even if Martinelli's piece doesn't convince you to adopt a whole new daily coffee ritual, the tour is engaging.
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