Only a couple years ago, Jessie St was a derelict side street with worn buildings literally disintegrating into the landscape. Over the past year that same street has transformed into Mint Plaza, a simple but urbane stent of sorts that aims to heal the disharmony between the druggy sclerosis of 6th and Mission and the glitzy consumerism of nearby Bloomingdale’s and Metreon. Sure, there will be trendy restaurants and luxury lofts (including the former drug dens above – hip!) but anchoring the whole project, at least in my mind, is Blue Bottle Coffee’s new cafe.
If you’ve ever had the superb coffee from those funny carts tucked into garages and farmer’s markets on both sides of the bay, there is now a fully-fledged structure beckoning converts and philistines alike. The interior is austere, as befits a modern chapel for the coffee faithful. What calls to your attention are the array of chemistry lab-like curios, ready to proselytize with the particular method of extraction/intoxication you desire. Espresso drinks, single-origin espresso, siphon coffee and what I assume is a contraption for decanting coffee concentrate.
I’m glad that Blue Bottle decided to go with a coffee brewer other than a Clover. They’re cool machines, to be sure, but I’ve never been too impressed with the coffee they produce. I’ll have to try more of this siphon coffee before I’m totally taken with it; at the very least it’s a much more interesting process to watch. Still, as a part of both our urban and coffee landscapes, Blue Bottle’s cafe is a welcome beacon of renewal.
Update:
m’ladyfriend and I have made a weekly habit of breakfast and coffee at Blue Bottle. Dig the video featuring P as she sits in the window in this gripping ABC7News story
Keep your eye out for a possible cameo in an upcoming story on Pizzeria Delfina…
Update 2:
Oh, brother. She might as well get her SAG card. Now appearing on SFGate’s Pizza Friday
I gave up the “blacke as soote” beverage when I learned from a young french physician that it “dried up the cerebrospinal fluid and [leads to] convulsions… the upshot being general exhaustion, paralysis, and impotence.”
I strongly suggest you do the same if its not already too late.
I will readily give up a tad of CSF for a wonderful “cup o’ joe” and those are not convulsions but elations & marvel expressed in out of body experiences. The rest of those ailments, they are French physcian symptomology. Drink up some of the masters brew, Chad.
[...] the building to give the landmark new context in the urban landscape. As I’ve mentioned before, this was just another pee-smelling alley a few years ago. Now it’s a pee-smelling alley with [...]