The Bay Area is home to a coffee scene unrivaled in richness, history, and cutting-edge options. From globe-spanning field leaders like Blue Bottle Coffee to quality-focused independent brands like Wrecking Ball Coffee, Four Barrel Coffee, and Ritual, the Bay Area has given us years of features here at Sprudge, with cafes that are admired and imitated all over the world. Here’s 10 of our favorites,ย anchored by the work of our Bay Area staff writer Noah Sanders, with additional features by Leif Haven and Alex Bernson.
Hidden Coffee In Chinatown At San Francisco’s Chapel Hillย
The cafe is an elegant hole-in-the-wall, but not one youโre likely to stumble upon. Itโs hidden, just off Chinatownโs main drag on pipe-cleaner sized Commercial Street, under a tattered red banner advertising for massage. The cafeโs presence is announced by a sleekly carved signboard and a large plate-glass window with a gold-inked logo shining in the late afternoon sun.
“A Sledgehammer Of Love”โCoffee In The Mornings At Oakland’s Pizzaioloย
The Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, in that very typically Oakland way, is at once bustlingโthe constant rush of cars, the small parade of people marching up and down the sidewalksโand yet calmly residential. The commercial hubbub feels LIKE more of an extension of the surrounding residential neighborhood than anything else. Inside Pizzaiolo, with its exposed brick and warmly glowing burnished hardwoods, a similar feeling exists, as if the residual energy of Hallowell and his friends had long ago morphed and evolved into a communal living room for the neighborhood. Gerberโs dog, Maude, can be spotted most mornings shyly asking for a pet from her favorite customers. โItโs actually a neighborhood spot,โ Gerber tells me, “and not some pre-fabricated intentional vibe.”
Budding Bay Area Roasters Get A Boost At Highwire Coffee
In the last ten years, the Bay Area has become a mecca for nascent coffee roasters looking to make their mark on the exploding specialty coffee scene. It can get crowded, and certainly competitive, with fresh faces likeย Supersonic,ย Andytown, andย Hearthย butting up against the existing stalwarts likeย Blue Bottle,ย Four Barrel, andย Sightglass; all of them fighting to make an impression, to make themselves known on a local and, hopefully, national level. Even without the crowded field San Francisco presents, newly minted roasters start off on a bad foot as the costs of a roasting operation in the cityโthe roaster, the rent, the permits, and on and onโcan be sky-high and a brutal deterrent for those looking to experiment with the idea of seeing their logo on their own bag of beans. Luckily, Oaklandโsย Highwire Coffeeย is offering a Tenant Roasting Program to do what itย can to not only give the next generation of coffee roasters a foothold but to help educate those who might even harbor a spark of roasting interest.
San Francisco: It’s Opening Day At The Brand New Equator Coffees
Amidst the hubbub of construction, traffic, and the din of human existence in San Franciscoโs Mid-Market neighborhood, our friends and partners at Mill Valleyโs ownย Equator Coffeesย have thrown open the doors to theirย hotly anticipatedย first San Francisco cafe. Designed byย Boor Bridges Architecture, the cafe features large picture windows that peer out onto this slowly evolving section of San Franciscoโs main thoroughfare. Or if youโre Devorah Freudiger, Equatorโs Director of Training and Education, you hope the windows will invite passersby to peer in.
Go Inside The Brand New Counter Culture Coffee Bay Area HQย
In late April 2015, Counter Culture Coffee threw open the doors on its 12,000-square-footย roasting and training facility in Emeryville, therebyย firmly announcing the brandโs intentions to make their mark on the West Coast. Iย ventured out to the space to get the full tour of this beautiful, light-filled warehouse and sit and chat with a few of Counter Cultureโs notable employees.
Sansome: Blue Bottle’s Latest Comes To San Franciscoย
These new Blue Bottle cafes in San Francisco are coming fast, with Sansome opening just two weeks afterย the companyโs new Mid-Market location. The cafes are quite different; Mid-Market is simple, attractive but shed of frivolitiesโa place to come and get a cup of coffee, not stare at the 100-year-old tile work. 115 Sansome is a sort of minor โflagshipโ store, set up in a beautiful, tourist-friendly space, with a subdued dramatic flair to it that naturally draws a crowd. A crowd of 40 or so people queued up in the lobby on opening day. Early returns indicate that Sansomeโs a hit.
Veni, FiDi, Vici: Great Coffee In San Francisco’s Financial District
Beforeย Coffee Bar, the FiDi had next to nothing. An offshoot of Bay Area coffee godfatherย Mr. Espresso, Coffee Bar had cemented itself as an up-and-comer with a massive two-story retail location in The Mission. With business booming, owner Luigi Di Ruocco made the move to expand into one of the cityโs driest specialty coffee locales. Though he now runs two solid retail locations downtownโthe original on Montgomery Street, and a newer one on the edge of Chinatownโthe original is this authorโs preferred choice. Aimed at the fast-paced Financial District nine-to-fiver, the Montgomery location is a brightly lit nook (itโs only 476ย square feet), stylishly clad in light wood in a way so the ceiling forms a geometric dome above its customers.
A Different Kind Of Coffee Break At Evernote HQย
Come toย Evernoteโs new headquarters for a meeting with CEOย Phil Libin and thereโs a good chance that your meeting will start with a cappuccino in their lobby espresso bar. If youโre an Evernote employee, your mornings probably start the same way.ย Seriously tricked out office espresso barsย are nothing new in the Bay Area tech scene, but at Evernote, thereโs a twist: depending on which morning you visit, that coffee will be made for you by Mr. Libin himself.
In San Francisco, Hearth Coffee Comes Home To The Castro
Opened by the husband-and-wife team of Ariana Akbar and James Kafader (one-time owners of the now defunct Parkside coffee haunt, Brown Owl), Hearth Coffee sits a hundred feet off Market Street, tucked in the shadow of the gorgeous and historicย Castro Theater.ย A one-time tanning salon, Kafader and Akbar have gone the distance in converting the room into a bright, airy space marked by a distinctively Scandinavian design aesthetic. White walls soar upwards from the untreated wood floors (reclaimed pier pilings) and a gleaming and polished wooden bar zigs and zags its way almost the entire length of the shop, with polished white steel and wooden chairs tucked beneath it.
Snowbird Coffee: For The Dreamers In San Francisco’s Inner Sunsetย
Snowbird Coffee is a dimly lit, low-ceilinged, cozy cave of a cafe tucked away beneath the salmon-colored window frames of a faded apartment complex. An assortment of vintage paraphernalia line the shelves and wallsโancient Golden West coffee cans filled with succulents and anย Attack of the 50 Foot Womanย movie poster, amongst other items. On both of my visits to Snowbird, the smattering of plush seats and wooden banquettes were filled with locals absorbed in conversation, diligently pounding away at their laptops or nose deep in a book. Itโs a spot that seems to encourage you to sit down for a minute, take a breath, and get comfortable. Kim, a filmmaker-turned-coffee-shop-owner, wouldnโt have it any other way.
Exploring The Bay Area’s Multi-Roaster Cafe Scene
JoEllen Depakakiboย recentlyย joined the fray withย Pinhole Coffeeย in Bernal Heights at 231 Cortland Avenue. She told me that the landlord had been so eager to have a cafe in the building, sheโd done a build-out even before Depakakibo arrived.ย Luckily, Depakakibo swooped in and grabbed it. Knowing full well that the cafรฉ would be host to a veritable army of strollersโthe neighborhoodโs nickname is, of course, Maternal HeightsโDepakakibo designed the space accordingly. Itโs wide open, with plenty of room to bring about a double-wide.