Do you ever feel a special kinship with an operation, be it a bakery, farm, shop, restaurant or coffee roaster, where it starts to seem like it’s a close friend you want to visit with often? Or you daydream that you could just quit your job today and start there tomorrow, immersed in its smells and sounds and all the little things that bring you happiness in your dull little life? Oh, you.
Blue Bottle is my friend, in that odd sort of way. It’s guided me over the years, cultivating in my palate an appreciation for truly fresh roasted coffee and guiding my own experiments with coffee, espresso and roasting at home. In turn, I have eagerly watched it grow from farmers market carts to the “convivial” little kiosk in an alley-way garage to its bustling but still tucked-away cafe and now to its corner spot in the Ferry Building, as auspicious a location as Chez Panisse’s must have been on Shattuck thirty years ago.
This morning, on its opening day, we sipped macchiatos from wonderful espresso cups made custom for Blue Bottle by Heath (another operation I feel a special kinship for, as we’ve just started to collect our own set). We celebrated the same way we did in the morning before going to city hall last week, or with Miette cakes at our git-together this past weekend: with good coffee and warm, caffeinated daydreams of a more pleasant life hanging out with our friends.
