Just gotta say it: I love Blue Bottle
Blue Bottle Coffee is no secret locals-only place, so I am not breaking any ground by writing about it here. Coffee fanatics, including me, have waxed poetic about it on many other websites and best-of lists.
But man I love this place and I just gotta say it again. In case you haven’t heard about it, Blue Bottle Coffee is a little espresso stand in an alley in Hayes Valley. They also roast their coffee in Oakland and have stands in farmer’s markets. They serve “mircoroasted” organic espresso. And everything about it is good, right down to the heart on top of the cappuccino.
Espresso is so much more enjoyable when you drink it in a real cup at a little counter seconds after it is made. Forget the 24oz. frozen monstrosities from Starbucks. This is the way to go.
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Me too!
I live around the corner from the Hayes Valley Linden St kiosk and so walk by it most every morning. And while the coffee is marvelous, to be completely honest, I sometimes find the crowd that congregates there to be a bit… ‘precious’.
I was always wondering whatever is up with coffee house culture in the U.S.. When I was in NYC earlier this year, I think it didn’t exist. You got a paper cup in almost every cafe type of place you went in.
Coffee tastes so much better from a real cup, glas - whatever. Let alone the ambience when you take a seat and the place is not optimized for straight forward coffee to go and run away type of people. :)