The Trimethyldioxypurist
Let's start the week right. Let's talk caffeine. Trimethyldioxypurin. What better window into San Francisco than its coffee joints?
Gallery Cafe is at the corner of Washington & Mason, right across from the San Francisco Cable Car Museum. Here, they dispense with the questions about "which bean" or "which blend." Your choices are "leaded" or "unleaded"; the only bean is the best, made for purists. The cafe serves "La Colombe Torrefaction" -- a brand that is rarely served locally (Asia de Cuba being one of the few others that do, if any); even so, Gallery Cafe is the only local place you can actually buy the beans whole.
While we're usually fairly easy to please and generally go for whatever's "on tap" (i.e., drip coffee), this is one establishment where we must go for the fancy stuff, if only to experience what manager Estrella Tadeo refers to as "latte art." The lattes are indeed little pieces of art, perhaps more behind the name "Gallery Cafe" than the scattered paintings. Hearts, rosettes, leaves -- delicate designs in milk foam are fascinating enough to give pause, even in spite of caffeine jones to the point of shaking. The "latte art" is an excellent waking-up counterpoint to the clover-leaf-in-foam-topped Guinness that helped put us down the night before.
As for the coffee itself -- it's hard to do it justice without resorting to "Taster's Choice"-style descriptions. Suffice it to say that both the espresso drinks and drip coffee possess a strong, consistent flavor; bold without being overpowering, the quality obvious to even our own unrefined palette.
The clientele reflects the neighborhood -- on the Chinatown fringe of Nob Hill; spitting distance from Russian Hill, right on the cable car line. While Gallery Cafe has a couple Web-enabled computers that customers can use for free, students abound with their own laptops (which can be also plugged into the 'net, courtesy of the cafe), books, and other studying apparati.
Funny, we can't recall ever being up this early when we were students. Of course, Folger's was more our speed back then. Young parents with young kids, people on their way to the financial district, and a smattering of artsy/hipster types also flow in and out; we barely had an opening to ask a question or two to the staff, who are friendly, and more than accommodating.
Here's the rest of the story: Gallery Cafe has been in business since February '03. The cafe has food; a lot of customers seem to order the stuff, so we're sure it's fine. Both breakfast (hot and cold) and lunch (salads, sandwiches) help round out the menu . . . oh, and, bonus, they serve wine & beer too.
We could probably go on and on, but the pre-caffeine shakes have given way to post-caffeine jitters, so we'll sign off on this final note: Gallery Cafe -- goooood coffee.
Check it out. 1200 Mason St; phone: 415-296-9932. http://gallerycafesf.com
[Any places you'd like the Trimethyldioxypurist to
check out? Leave it in the comments section; we'll get
to it eventually. Next week: another 'hood, another
joint, another cup or two.]
SFist Jeremy, contributing.