Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

Today’s L.A. Weekly featured an interesting bio-piece on father and son L.A. espresso pioneers, Ambrose and Guy Pasquini: Q & A with Ambrose and Guy Pasquini: L.A.’s Single Espresso Origin – Los Angeles Restaurants and Dining – Squid Ink. You might recognize the Pasquini name for some of their excellent home espresso machines. But the [...]

Tags: caffe_trieste, coffee_milkshakes, coffee_roasting, espresso_machines, faema, la_cimbali, la_marzocco, nespresso, pasquini, sightglass, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines

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Opening in July 2011, this new coffeehouse expands Glen Park‘s neighborhood coffee offerings. It’s located a little off the beaten path, nearest a freeway exit from the Glen Park BART station. Outside they have a couple of sidewalk tables. Inside is a modern, semi-sterile interior of orange and gray walls and exposed chrome and stainless [...]

Tags: cafe_bello, espresso_review, espresso_sameness, faema, glen_park, macap, mazzer, mr-espresso

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The story of coffee at Specialty’s Café & Bakery reflects the story of San Francisco’s consumer tastes for retail coffee. In the beginning, there was Faema + Prebica — and it was weak A decade ago, Specialty’s ran a small chain of bakery/cafés with coffee service areas. Some locations, like this one on Pine St., [...]

Tags: acf_cups, big_four_coffee, blue_bottle, caffe_artigiano, espresso_review, faema, financial_district, franke, frog_hollow_farm, hario_v60_dripper, intelligentsia, la_marzocco, Starbucks, superautomatic_espresso_machines

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Established on this spot in 1955, Paolina’s operated as Carmel’s oldest running Italian restaurant for over 50 years. It was little more than a cafeteria-style indoor food counter, though they used a decorative, three-group, manual, brass eagle Rancilio machine with “Paolina’s” detailed on the back. The espresso may not have been memorable, but their machine [...]

Tags: carmel_coffee, espresso_review, faema, mr-espresso, rancilio

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Two years ago, when we first encountered this café chain on Via Garibaldi in Torino, Italy, we had no idea how few of them exist. For one, turns out it was the only one in all of Italy. For another, there is only a dozen of them in the world. Oddly, four of them are [...]

Tags: chicago_cafes, espresso_review, faema, ipa_cups, lavazza, lavazza_cafes

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Opening in April 2009 on the site of the former Eatcetera (they still retained their frozen yogurt machines), “eat” still seems the theme at this Financial District salad and panini shop. We’ve long been hoping for an Eataly to move into town, and this would barely cover their bathrooms. But it’s definitely an improvement over [...]

Tags: eataly, espresso_review, faema, financial_district, mr-espresso, nuova_point

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Last month — after publishing a few trip reports of nearby Cole Coffee, the Spasso Coffeehouse, and Peaberry’s Coffee & Tea — Luigi DiRuocco of Mr. Espresso asked if we tried the espresso at Oliveto. We last updated our review of Oliveto a couple years prior, so the focus of our most recent Rockridge tour [...]

Tags: coffee_bar, espresso_review, faema, monterey_cafes, mr-espresso, nuova_point, oakland_espresso, rockridge

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For the last of our brief survey of some of the more notable cafés in Oakland’s Rockridge, this tiny storefront has long been the lone outlet showcasing the roasting that goes on some four miles away at Peaberry’s Coffee & Tea in Emeryville. The café and retail shop shares space with a Market Hall Bakery [...]

Tags: coffee_roasters, espresso_review, faema, oakland_espresso, rockridge

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Opening last month on the site of a former Briazz prepared-foods (lunch, primarily) chain shop, this corner café isn’t much of a leap from its predecessor. They serve sandwiches, soups, and salads as before — but with an emphasis on cocoa and espresso. The store seeps causes from its signage: Fair Trade coffee and cocoa, [...]

Tags: acf_cups, espresso_review, faema, fair_trade, financial_district, mr-espresso

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This French bakery and café resides across the street of a parking garage in a roadside “strip mall” of sorts. It’s in a very odd part of the city that consists of modern-yet-plain software company office buildings clustered together. Imagine if SF opened a theme park based on downtown San Jose, and you get the [...]

Tags: espresso_review, faema, french_coffee, mr-espresso, soma

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