La Prima Espresso Company - Strip District

The yellow awning with the red La Prima logo marks the entrance to this narrow, tile-floored shop. Since nineteen eighty-eight, Joe Tambellini has imported green coffee beans and roasted them on-site, filling the air with the smell of dark roasts. Long before high-end coffee chains became common, this place operated as a bridge between Italian espresso traditions and the industrial grit of the Strip District. Workers and truck drivers stood at the same small bar as poets and office employees.