Posted by TheShot on 21 Jul 2011 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew, Quality Issues
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., [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 05 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Barista, Local Brew, Machine, Restaurant Coffee
This more informal, osteria sister to the Quince restaurant next door (its name is Italian for “quince”) offers a mighty fine, albeit still somewhat pricey, Italian meal. (The old Quince relocated to Pacific Ave. here about a year ago.) The space showcases many wide glass windows, exposed woods (everything seems brown in here), and a [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 15 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Add Milk, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew
There was a time when people bored with food found that it was a lot more fun when you put it on a stick. Or freeze-dried and packed it in plastic tubes as “astronaut food”. Today’s equivalent is the glorified roach coach, where bored (and sometimes broke) foodies tell us that everything tastes better when [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 17 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Local Brew, Starbucks
Near SF’s Flatiron Building (yeah, we got one too), this one-time Starbucks kiosk arguably put the then-next-door All Star Cafe & Bakery at 550 Market St. out of business in its first year of existence. Yet despite morning lines of commuters waiting for their lattes, and an overworked crew of three in tight quarters with [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 23 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: Local Brew
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 [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 13 Aug 2009 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew
Now that Blue Bottle Coffee Co. has expanded their roasting operations, we can expect to be super-saturated with its coming ubiquity. While that’s an overall good thing — such as now being able to snag some fresh Blue Bottle beans at the hyper-local Avedano’s Meats in Bernal Heights — it does contribute to that espresso [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 16 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Fair Trade, Local Brew
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, [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 06 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew, Quality Issues
This café isn’t easy to stumble upon, even if its signature is a rather large Art Nouveau café sign in lights. You have to enter the One Jackson Place center to reach this café, adorned with a miniature zinc bar and zinc-plating decorating its small kiosk. Located in a quiet courtyard surrounded by multiple stories [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 15 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: Local Brew
While much of the world was gearing up for a free Starbucks coffee giveaway, I got in a little practice yesterday and found espresso just as sketchy — but without the lines. (With California’s minimum wage at over six bucks an hour, it takes only 20 minutes of waiting to make “free” coffee not so [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 16 May 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
This is an unassuming deli/bakery with no seating. Outside, under a wooden construction corridor that’s been there for years, the signs and awnings say Deli & Espresso. But any reference in a phone book or directory lists it as just Deli & — and they answer the phone, “Deli And.” One of the cheapest espresso [...]
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