The first cafe space for Indonesian coffee roaster Beaneka Coffee Roastery is home to Firebrand pastries, a delightful and warm service staff, and some of the rarest coffee drinks in the Bay Area. That’s because until now, SanDai in Walnut Creek’s Kopi Bar was the only dedicated place for avocado and chocolate coffee drinks. Now, steps from the San Francisco Bay, grab an iced pandan coffee and nastar (pineapple shortbread) to enjoy while you take in the sights.
Try any of the 17 on this list to see why everyone is talking about the coffee in the City by the Bay.
Kopiku
Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters
Wrecking Ball’s Trish Rothgeb is known for her well-balanced espresso drinks and precise, technologically advanced pour-overs — plus, she coined the now popular “waves of coffee” terminology. Visit the original Cow Hollow location and order an espresso or any of their specialty drinks, such as the shop’s espresso citron tonic, plus a bag of beans for the road.
Saint Frank Coffee
Saint Frank is to San Francisco coffee as Dungeness crab is to San Francisco restaurants: when the time is right in the city, nothing else will do. Owner and founder Kevin Bohlin’s been on a spree, too, as he opened choux paradise Juniper on Polk Street in 2023 and a second San Francisco Saint Frank location in SoMa. Longtime fans return for the gorgeous service, minimal aesthetic, and tea-like Bolivian coffees.
Iron Horse Coffee Bar
Some might know Iron Horse more as a cocktail bar, but this spot also doubles as a coffee shop during the day, serving espressos, Americanos, lattes, and more, using beans from Ritual. And while this is all fine and good, those in the know order one of the cafe’s boozy coffees before it closes at 2:30 p.m., perfect for an afternoon stroll.
Haraz Coffee House
Fans of spiced coffee and vibey music can enjoy the first San Francisco outpost of Haraz now that the Dearborn, Michigan-founded company has set its eyes on California. There are decadent Yemeni desserts and pastries here, such as honey-drizzled bee bites, but the drinks are the main attraction. Try the pistachio latte, which comes with a double shot of espresso.
Outset Coffee
When Not Latte hit Irving Street in spring 2022, it marked the arrival of one of the city’s first dedicated fruit coffee shops. Now, as coffee continues to find imaginative and wonderful iterations, Outset on Valencia and New Montgomery streets takes the form to the next level. The Outset Americano is a medley of Ethiopian coffee plus not-from-concentrate orange juice, jasmine green tea, and orange syrup. It is a delicate, multi-textural drink unlike anything else in the city. And, gratefully, caffeinating to boot.
Scullery
The Scullery is a little nook of a coffee shop with a smattering of outdoor seating, and the thrum of traffic booming on Geary Street outside. The team at this cafe is tuned into the specialty coffee world, serving East Bay favorite Mother Tongue Coffee and top-tier toast, too.
The Coffee Movement
There’s nothing as fine as sitting on foggy Balboa Street while the alchemists at Coffee Movement’s second (and greatest) location crank out the army of coffee ordered each morning. The flights are affordable, a chance to try one well-sourced coffee brewed three ways or to try three well-sourced coffees brewed one way. Plus, there are rotating coffee concoctions such as the Earl Greyhound made with filter coffee, grapefruit, Earl Grey tea, tarragon, elderflower tonic, and lemon balm.
Sextant Coffee Roasters
Sextant founder Kinani Ahmed works directly with Ethiopian, Kenyan, and Colombian growers, making high-end but affordable beans to-go. In this chunk of the city, Sextant is alone in offering terrific coffees and delicious pastries from Firebrand Artisan Breads.
Flywheel Coffee Roasters
This coffee shop on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park is both a familiar favorite and a high-quality, fourth-wave business. That’s because founder and owner Aquiles Guerrero was born in Nicaragua before coming to the city in the 1980s where he worked at Martha & Bros Coffee Co. The business is expanding and it’s the high-quality pour-overs and drippers that keeps business booming.
Abanico Coffee Roasters
Abanico Coffee Roasters brought specialty coffee drinks and freshly roasted beans to the Mission in 2021. Owner Ana Valle is originally from El Salvador, where she grew up sipping cafecito with her grandmother. Now she’s sweetening cafe con leche with condensed milk and dusting iced cafe de olla with cinnamon in this bright, airy space.
SPRO - Mission Dolores/Castro
SPRO is known for its playful and inventive coffee drinks. Beyond the usual roster of lattes, mochas, and pour-overs, coffee drinkers can explore options like the Cold Fashioned, which takes cold brew and mixes it with orange bitters and gum syrup, topped with a Luxardo cherry and a flamed orange twist. There are three locations to choose from, including a Mission Bay outpost and a spot in the Tenderloin, along with this location on Church Street.
Paper Son at Neighbor Bakehouse
Alex Pong’s Paper Son pop-up is a crowning achievement in the city’s vast coffee game, merging his Asian American heritage with his top-tier espresso and pour-over skills. The espresso passionfruit tonic is a bubbly love letter to the fruit notes coffee snobs love, and Paper Son’s riff on Thai iced tea, the Thai Tea Cloud, is as well-bodied an iteration as they come in San Francisco. The team opened a second location downtown at 303 Second Street N102 that’s open Monday through Friday, thanks to the city’s Vacant to Vibrant program.
Hey Neighbor Cafe
Opened in June 2021 by Dee and their cat Boots, this Bayview shop has gained a loyal fanbase for items like the Hella Black toast on San Francisco bakery Rize Up’s bread and housemade orange marmalade. Plus, it bears repeating, the co-owner is a cat.
Excelsior Coffee
Lea Sabado and Andre Higgenbotham opened this Excelsior neighborhood shop in 2019 with a healthy following of motorcycle fans excited to see a Black and brown-owned business in a very white coffee scene. The shop makes a mean chai, but more relevantly this is the only specialty shop in the area with strong but not overly dark roasts.
Java on Ocean
Ocean Avenue plays host to lots of fantastic restaurants and bars, but few destinations are as open, enormous, and affordable as Java on Ocean. The shop features tons of specialty drinks, and not specialty coffee, mind you, but items like rose, lavender, and zebra lattes.
