Posted by TheShot on 23 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Café Society, Local Brew, Machine, Roasting
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 [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 23 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Beans, Café Society, Consumer Trends, Local Brew, Machine, Quality Issues, Starbucks
Today’s New York Times revealed the “very special machine” to be showcased at Blue Bottle Coffee’s Mint Plaza grand opening today: At Last, a $20,000 Cup of Coffee - New York Times. One-upping the now-blasé Clover, it’s a $20,000 siphon bar for brewed (i.e., not espresso) coffee, imported from Japan via the Ueshima Coffee Company. [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Café Society, Local Brew, Machine
Thanks to a regular reader who tipped me off to yesterday’s gossip on tablehopper.com, a widely read local restaurant scene blog written by an aspiring Hedda Hopper: tablehopper newsletter — june 26. Apparently after a year of searching for just the right location, James Freeman of Blue Bottle Coffee found a home for his new [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 08 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: Local Brew
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 [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: Local Brew
This has always been a popular and busy South Park institution. From its location near the center of the park, this café has witnessed the run-up to the dot-com boom (from before Wired magazine made this neighborhood the “heart of the digital revolution”), through its implosion, to more rational times today. It’s a rather unpretentious [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 09 Jan 2007 | Tagged as: Local Brew
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 [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 18 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
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 [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 04 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
On the fourth floor among the more elegant mall eateries of the downtown Westfield Centre, this bakery/café has a long patisserie counter, chandeliers, and numerous café tables. The fourth floor of this reopened wing (on the site of the former Emporium that closed down many years ago) is markedly more upscale than the eateries on [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 16 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
Can CoffeeRatings.com really stomach a business that institutionalizes the “values” of to go espresso in a paper cup? While it’s far from our favorite, it does go down in a pinch.
This mobile espresso cart service at Mission & Spear Streets sometimes runs another location at the diagonally opposite end of the city block (around the [...]
Posted by TheShot on 28 Jul 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
Deep inside Rincon Center One (now how apocalyptic does that sound?), this espresso counter serves coffee among the food court seating. It’s right next to the indoor, five-story “Rain Column” waterfall — so if you can find the insides of building, you won’t miss it. NaS uses a portable boom box of sorts to play [...]
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