Espresso News and Reviews – TheShot.coffeeratings.com

This café sits on the south side of Geary Blvd.’s viaduct/quasi-freeway exit, west of Masonic Ave. There’s a Denny’s-esque wall of curved glass that creates an almost greenhouse-like front enclosure, but you need to enter this small space by walking down the narrow passageway just past it. Inside there’s a colorful interior with several café [...]

This kiosk/cubby hole with old cigar branding on glass above the doorway has only a dry-erase marker menu inside giving away its name. (“The Sentinel“? Are they Michael Douglas fans or something?) A former cigar shop, and most recently an outlet of Enzo’s Italian Deli for a number of years, this tiny location opened in [...]

Previously, we had written about Coffee Bar when it was still under construction. It has since opened on the longest night of the year, December 21 — with limited initial fanfare, as the partners first wanted to iron out some of the kinks that naturally come with opening a new space. And it is a [...]

This week the The San Francisco Chronicle published a piece on the anticipated October opening of Coffee Bar, located at at 1890 Bryant St., which is really on the NE corner of Mariposa & Florida Sts. — just west of Potrero Hill: The Inside Scoop / Restaurants retooling decor, menus, concepts. As it so happened, [...]

It was a year ago that we posted a review of Cafe Madeleine on O’Farrell St., near Union Square. And since we’re overdue for a Trip Report, and since I’ve been terribly lax (inept?) about taking photos at some of my more recent café visits, it’s time to dust off some “old” photos for a [...]

I’m a little slow this time around, but not long ago Citysearch.com announced their 2006 readers’ poll winners for the best coffee in San Francisco: Best of Citysearch San Francisco – Best San Francisco Coffee. This is something of an annual tradition, as we reviewed Citysearch’s 2005 coffee winners. (When you think of it, naming [...]

Some of the enjoyment I get adding new cafés to CoffeeRatings.com is in finding completely obscure places that make surprisingly decent (though never great) espresso. Last Saturday night I was visiting some friends for an event over at the ArtSF community center near the sketchier cross section of 16th and Capp Streets in the Mission. [...]

This “living room” environment on the north end of Potrero Hill has a large space with modern seating indoors. They also have a large, private patio in back with many tables and large sun umbrellas. The staff seem motivated to make a higher-quality espresso, and for the most part they deliver on that. Using a [...]

This sister café to the Crissy Field Center is (less and less) inferior yet more popular — with the Golden Gate Bridge just outside. They serve the usual soup, sandwiches, baked goods, juices, and espresso. They have a few indoor tables and a lot of outdoor seating on benches and in the shade. They serve [...]

Across the Balboa Theater, this cavernous café and art gallery was managed by the same owners from 1994 until being sold to its current owners in 2004. (The previous owners have since set up a café in Gilbert, AZ.) The new owners, like the previous ones, are a bit cagey with their customers and seem [...]