Hello All,
San Francisco does have several quite good coffee houses, some  
mentioned by other posters to the list.
For espresso challenging that in northern italy, come to the mid  
peninsula, specifically, Menlo Park and Palo Alto.
1,	 Barroni's on El Camino Real-ask for Ishmail, no one else. Ishmail  
is good enough to compete in Italy.
2.	Caffe del Doge on University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto
	To walk into del Doge is to walk into Venice, Italy. The barrista is  
the caffe del Doge owner from Venice itself. He is here for awhile  
during the opening and establishment of this, his first coffe house  
in the US. They send their trainee barristas to Venice to learn the  
art. There is nothing like this in the Bay Area.
There is a (one each) Caffe del Doge in Germany, Tokyo, Buenos Aires,  
USA, and perhaps another somewhere. You can check these people out on  
the web.
Best
Richard Simoni