[Every week or so, Curbed SF will feature a place to purchase and consume caffeinated beverages, not limited to coffee, of which this is the first installment]
We've drunk, and will continue to drink, mediocre cups of coffee. We have OK coffee at our favorite restaurants. We have decent coffee at the office. We have been known to visit Seattle. Peet's is good, Starbucks has, sadly, spun out of control. And then, there's Blue Bottle.
So we'll go out on a limb and say that the coffee at Blue Bottle is a revelation. There are no drip coffee makers; each cup is made individually with it's own filter. The espresso is always ristretto with a lovely head of crema. The baristas are obsessed with their craft, just the final step in growing, selecting and roasting varietal beans.
These guys are totally unpretentious, having started their roasting career in a corrugated metal shed behind Doña Thomas in Oakland. The kiosk (pictured above) on Linden Place between Octavia and Gough is the front end of a cabinet shop with a pull-down door, and it's open 7/7. There's also a kiosk at the Ferry Plaza Market on Saturdays only. Expect a wait in both locations with a congenial crowd.
Curbed SF orders a Quad Cap (translation: a capuccino with four short shots) because we're trying to cut back. At home, it's Blue Bottle's Three Africans in a French Press. Yes, we chose the pictue above because the owner of the BMW did such an awesome job of parking.
· Blue Bottle Coffee [bluebottlecoffee.net]