Mission Accomplished - the real thing

The quest? A perfect latte. I had asked the doorman at the hotel about independent coffee shops, but he only knew of the local Starbucks and Peet's. He did direct me to a local chain, Boudin Bakery, nestled into the Macy's building. It had a local feel, and a good coffee and sandwich, but that was largely due to the wonderful bread (which he told me that they baked in the basement...jury still out on that truth.) The latte, while tasty, lacked flair.

I knew that there just had to be local shops still in business. Corporations couldn't have pushed all of them off the streets. I was listening to the local Twitter, and tweet displayed for a blog describing local shops in this neighborhood. I opened the blog and read about two places that interested me: The Blue Bottle Cafe and Samovar Tea Lounge. He did a great job describing the location of The Blue Bottle, because it was off of the main streets and tucked away behind a major building. Energized, I took to the streets to discover this treasure. Jessie Street is broken by major buildings, so I had to stay on Mission to get to 5th Street. I found Jessie St and walked through the plaza, searching for the Blue Bottle. As I came to the end of the plaza and looked around, I saw it. A subtle Blue Bottle sign on the corner of a building.

This was the place and I anxiously walked towards the entrance.

Once inside, I could see that it was "authentic" and looked for signs of "chain". There were none. No cloned products. Just coffee stuff. And a barista. I put in my order and looked around.

This was an industry strength machine, and I had no idea what was going on. A lot of glass tubs and drips and burners.
I saw a "home version" of the device sitting on one of the shelves, so I am going to use this to figure out this coffee making technique. The typed sign on the box says that this is a "siphon kit" with siphon top and bottom, bamboo paddle, filters, charming siphon primer, half a pound of single origin coffee, and a bunsen burner, all for just $140. Such a deal.

The mission was an extreme success. The double latte was beautiful and tasted incredible. Success! See Shannon Clark's blog about the area at http://tinyurl.com/dfc39a.

Additional Note: The Blue Bottle Coffee Company has an interesting story and a smallness that makes it big in my book.