Posted by TheShot on 17 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew
At its best, Yountville is the New World epicenter for quality food and wine. At its worst, Yountville lays its claim to food & wine prominence through a fabricated culture of European fakery (more on that in a future post). One of the exceptions in town to this latter rule is this this odd curiosity [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 12 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew
The Mission is one of SF’s best neighborhoods. We don’t necessarily mean Mission Street, however: home to BART’s Plasticuffs Station and a decent assortment of angry heroin addicts. We’re talking about 24th Street — a working class neighborhood with a strong immigrant community, but without many of Mission Street’s rougher edges. Decent coffee is now [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 04 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew
This spacious café, oddly decorated with bike frames, lies on the north end of the Sausalito strip. Its name is pronounced “CHEE-bo”, Italian for “food.” (Though we did find an amusing online reference where someone suggested it is pronounced “SHEE-Bow” — which sounds more like M&M-Mars for “decommissioned cat food“.) There are a few outdoor [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 26 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Beans, Foreign Brew, Roasting
In a Trader Joe’s mini strip mall off Highway 101, this café only seems to attract the attention of the locals — despite the heavy wine-tasting traffic along Vineyard Drive. If you haven’t been to this burgeoning California wine-growing region, you’ll be in for a shock at how much the industry here has developed out [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 25 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew
What a strange café. This alcohol-free dive (unlike the drunken student bar across the street) has been an institution in downtown SLO for over 25 years. The place shows its age — with a lot of wood and furnishing wear by years of student traffic. When you enter, there’s a room centered around the service [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 09 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Local Brew, Restaurant Coffee
This small-bite Italian eatery and wine bar on Lower Haight arrived on the scene in the Spring of ’08, taking over what was frequently a campaign office for local politicians. They have limited seating in front and plenty more in back, with both dining areas separated by a large, accommodating bar with stool seating. Despite [...]
[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 20 Aug 2009 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew, Restaurant Coffee
This upstairs café (though more of a Western restaurant) resides in the rather infamous birthplace of California Cuisine. At least when Alice Waters decided to take her local, farm-fresh cooking operation out of a house and into this formal spot decades ago. Yes, dear Alice may be the mother of most of what’s good about [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 14 Apr 2009 | Tagged as: Beans, Local Brew
It has been two years since we first reviewed Piccino Cafe in a previous Trip Report. Opening in Dogpatch in late 2006, just off the new Muni T line, they originally provided espresso bar service at their 801 22nd Street pizzeria. A year later they moved their coffee bar operations to kiosk at the end [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 04 Apr 2009 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Machine, Roasting
Opening this past Thursday (April 2, 2009) after a long wait for Blue Bottle to expand the production of their roasting operations, this café technically marks the third and fourth Blue Bottle stations in operation at the Ferry Building Marketplace on a busy weekend. But this is the first with more permanent (i.e., no cart) [...]
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