Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

Now is that rare time of year where being way out in the Avenues doesn’t feel like being a political prisoner living in exile. For a few weeks out of the year — before the blanket of cold fog transforms the western half of San Francisco into nature’s largest refrigerator — tourists and locals alike [...]

Opening in Oct. 2009, James Freeman finally established a spacious company headquarters home for his ever-growing Bay Area coffee empire here in Jack London Square. They host a surprisingly small café for retail coffee service. There’s several tall stools and tables for outdoor seating along Webster St., and indoors there is barely a four-person window [...]

Opening in Sept. 2009, this beachfront café in downtown Kalk Bay bustles with lovers of coffee and baked goods. They’ve adopted a theme based on New York City’s TriBeCa neighborhood, which is expressed in NYC imagery on the walls. The tables are pretty classy, actually, and there are often musicians in front along the sidewalk [...]

Since we visited a few notable Peninsula cafés at the beginning of the year, some locals mentioned this neighborhood café. Il Piccolo Caffé has been in operation since 1990, and it has survived in the suburbs despite a Starbucks moving across the street in 2004. It adds a bit of local character as an Italian-themed [...]

This large, spacious café, located near SF City College, is a rare Ingleside gem. It’s of Italian influence by way of Argentina. Part coffee roastery and café, part restaurant. They have two sidewalk benches along Ocean Ave. in front (perhaps the only SF city street wide enough to land a 747). Inside there’s a wide [...]

There are plenty of fans of this sunset café with limited breakfast, lunch, and even more limited dinner options. Several indoor and many patio tables overlook the ocean sunsets, but the main attraction here seems to be waking up with a view of the beach and a giant cinnamon roll. Many locals rave about the [...]

Today Blue Bottle Coffee Co. opened up their long-anticipated Mint Plaza café — their first true space (besides kiosks and outdoor carts at the Ferry Building and in the East Bay) to showcase James Freeman’s commitment to freshness. The café is located at a bend in Jesse St. in the Mint Plaza alleyway — in [...]

Today we came across a New York Times-syndicated article that alluded to the shortcomings of most home espresso machines: Life: Get off to a healthy start in the morning | juice, cup, milk, divide, servings – OCRegister.com. What attracted us to it was some “unconventional” wisdom about home espresso machines — something we rarely find [...]

This café is part of the Segafredo Zanetti chain, and it has been located in the deepest bowels of a downtown SF shopping mall, the San Francisco Centre, for a number of years. It’s less of an espresso bar than its neighborhood sisters (e.g., the Segafredo Zanetti at Powell) and more of a counter café [...]

This newest location of the Bay Area chain is the sophisticated sister to the rest — perhaps a nod to the residential growth in SOMA as China Basin fills. A long, windowed, sidewalk-facing café with dark painted walls, dark wood furniture, elegant lamps, opera music, and plenty of stands selling coffee accessories: Moka pots, coffee [...]