A beloved Santa Cruz institution: a rambling Victorian house on Cedar Street converted to a multi-room café, with a large porch for outdoor seating and a back room hung with local art. Pergolesi has been a meeting place for Santa Cruz's counterculture, student, and academic communities since 1989, and the atmosphere reflects it — the conversations around you will cover everything from evolutionary biology to local politics.
The coffee is reliably good and the selection of teas is exceptional. Food is limited to pastries and light snacks. The porch on a sunny afternoon, with the maple tree overhead and the mix of customers ranging from UCSC professors to buskers, captures something essential about Santa Cruz that the Boardwalk's tourist crowd does not.