Nearly 50 years ago, a Seattle cafe owner traveled to Italy to try his hand at importing espresso machines. His trip changed the course of coffee history in the United States.
While in Florence, that owner, Kent Bakke, noticed something he’d never seen before: a machine that had two separate boilers, one for steaming milk and another for brewing coffee, allowing the milk to stay hot without scorching the espresso. A decade later, he signed a deal with the manufacturer, La Marzocco, then sold several of the machines to a local coffee start-up — named Starbucks.
As Starbucks went on to create a mainstream market for high-end coffee, La Marzocco became a shiny emblem of that shift.
Today, La Marzocco machines sit in just 15 percent of American coffee shops, according to Andrew Daday, the managing director for La Marzocco USA. Yet they still wield an outsize cultural influence. Even if you’ve never heard of the 99-year-old Italian company, you’ve probably seen the machines: sturdy and retro, with clean lines, stainless-steel finishes and the company name affixed in angular lettering.