The goal of any survey is ultimately to develop a taxonomy, a classification, of the different items surveyed based on specific functions or characteristics using a standardized set of criteria. That definition comes to me from my ninth grade biology teacher, Frank Arena, who was the first teacher I ever had that lectured in class four days a week, with one lab a week. I took pride in the notes that I took, that I still have my biology notebook to this day. When I took biology in college as part of my general Ed in college, I used this same notebook to earn an A.
Coffee is an animal that has been in my life before I ever drank it, being the drink of productive Americans, including my mom who left for work as a nurse every morning at 7 am. She taught me how to make coffee probably by the time I was 12, but I never really liked it until I had a cappuccino at Rutabegorz the summer after my freshman year in high school at the age of 15. It was that summer that I realized that coffee could be a different animal than the brown bitter water my mom scooped out of a can of Yuban.
Thirty three years later, I must have consumed a few thousand gallons of coffee by now, from dark roasted regular coffee to a good amount of steamed milk and espresso.
Before I decided to find as many good cafés in my neighborhood and beyond last summer, I had settled for a relatively mundane existence of two or three cafés, all within three or four blocks of each other. I almost never veered off course, meeting good friends, many of which that I met at the very same cafés for years. Some coffee houses came and went, but from one year to the next I went to the same cafés until one closed and I moved on to the one down the street. But last year, I decided to walk east from my apartment instead of west, walking to the warmer part of the city, where fog does not regularly frequent.
After the past year and a half then, here is my best of list of cafés that I would go to for specific purposes, while still flitting around to new cafés in search of the next great espresso or cool environment for my next review. I will qualify, that unless I mention it, all of the cafés below make excellent to awesome espresso and coffee drinks.
Best 15 minute morning walk with a seat in the sun (also best place for an afternoon $2 pot of loose tea):
Bean There Cafe, Waller at Steiner. With at least 16 seats on a a wide sidewalk, not to mention the long corner walls with full sized windows facing East, this cafe is the best place to enjoy a lingering coffee experience on a weekend morning. The music plays low in the background and the staff is very friendly and serves a quality cup and a few bagels and egg sandwiches to go along with my second cup of coffee after a cappuccino served to spec.
Best early morning, opens at 6 am, place to wake up to in the cold morning:
Coffee, Tea and Spice on Central and Hayes. Besides great coffee, the mostly college aged staff here has played a number of differ new bands that I have wondered, "what is that soothing sound that I am half consciously now aware of?" as I still sit there half asleep at 6:30 writing in my journal. I have also gotten to know a couple of the regulars of the place, as well as a few clients that speak really loudly in the morning, who I think they must speak loudly to either be heard or to try to wake each other up. The other great advantage of this location is that it is the best coffee I can find two blocks away from my house.
Best place to sit in the afternoon sun if I get home early enough, when I want to take a fifteen minute walk: Matching Half Cafe at Baker and McAllister. This corner cafe is smaller than Bean There, but situated on a corner with its long windowed wall faces West. The espresso here is served to spec and the coffee is slow drip. The small menu is also excellent for a light meal. The music here is also well played, the staff, likewise being mostly college aged. Like Coffee, Tea and Spice, the music helps me calm down from a busy day and ground myself as I write in my journal.
Best place for a 15 minute walk if I want to go shopping for food afterwards: Flywheel Coffee on Stanyan south of Page. The espresso is served to spec, while the coffee is slow dripped. But on a warmer day, this roaster/cafe also makes a cold drip iced coffee that is extracted out of a truly incredible chemical sculpture of glass that is worth investigating. Being a newer cafe, it still has a couple of nuances, especially fickle wifi, but I have seen constant improvements as this owner operated cafe continues to grow into its large space. It is next to Whole Foods on Stanyan, which I never go to, since I prefer Gus and Georgia's Haight Street Market near Ashbury which is closer to my house.
Best Overall cafe space (still): Cafe Trieste, on Grant in a North Beach. Old timer coffee Brahmins, hipsters, tourists, people going to work, neighbors, sidewalk seating, sunny morning window seats, dark area in back for computer users as well as a place to see a small band play at night.
Best Espresso (this month): Four Barrel on Valencia and 15th Street.
Friendliest staff: Four Barrel.
Most annoying clientele because they think they are so cool for drinking the coffee there: Ritual on Valencia near 22nd St. It is not everybody there, just a few. The coffee is excellent, and if the hipsters who think they were artists would disappear, then the space would not so much strange energy as you were waiting in the long line for your precious ounces of espresso while the hipsters stared you down for wearing jeans and a t-shirt to a coffee house in the morning.
Best Cafe east of Folsom in the Mission: Atlas Cafe on Florida at 20th.
Best Cafés in other neighborhoods not mentioned: working on it.
What is missing from my list that is hard to find...
A late night cafe open till ten pm: since I cannot drink coffee that late anymore (I wish I could) I might try to find one, but I won't go there much unless I needed a place to grade papers.
A cafe that turns into a wine bar at night. I will review Vinyl on the corner of Divisidero and Oak soon.
A cafe that hosts a poetry reading, book club, or writers group, just like the good old days. I'll get back to you.
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