Part one of a two-part spotlight

"Our friends pitied us when they saw this place," says Eileen Hassi, co-proprietor of red-hot Mission District cafe Ritual Roasters. "They told us we were doing everything wrong."

Jeremy Tooker, her co-proprietor, agreed. "We had too much space, they said," he says. "We'd never fill the tables. The streets around here were dead before 10 a.m."

What may have seemed a series of missteps and misadventures to Hassi and Tooker's peers turned out to be serendipity -- the stuff that goes into the best of origin stories. Stuffed into the back office, under the eyes of a giant millipede for whom the gang was pet sitting, the Eileen and Jeremy talked to SFist about how and why they got their start, what it's like to run a small business in one of San Francisco's hippest 'hoods, some of the keys to their recent success, and what's next to come.

The cafe has achieved a recent rash of publicity: Tooker was featured on the cover of the December/January issue of Barista Magazine ("Yes, there is such a magazine," they say, "and it's actually really good."). Ritual Roasters has been mentioned in the other antique media (i.e., print media) publications time and again, including places like 7x7, San Francisco Magazine, and even Food & Wine, who has Ritual in the top five cafes in the country. Despite our skeptical look at that very F&W article here on SFist, we wouldn't disagree with that mag's assessment of Ritual -- it is a fine, fine cafe.

The cafe's origins are a study in serendipity, as well as an example of turning the proverbial sow's ears into a silk purse. Both Tooker and Hassi worked for Torrefazione Italia Coffee, which we long ago described as "corporate coffee done right." They had both been transferred to shops down our way; Hassi from the Seattle area and Tooker from Portland. Tooker recounts their first meeting: "We were instantly in love," he says. "Business partner love at first sight," Hassi chimes in.

Though the corporation had brought Tooker down to manage the Montgomery store, his predecessor hadn't yet been informed of his obsolescence. He was asked to work in the store Hassi was managing on a temporary basis. She recalls that she refused to let him make espresso drinks that day. She made him work the register--and made fun of him all day. "He would dish it back, and customers were loving it," she says.

Shortly thereafter, the rumors of Torrefazione being bought out by Starbucks began to swirl. Amidst these rumors, Hassi shared with Tooker her idea of opening a coffee shop. He'd been entertaining similar thoughts -- they got together over (what else?) coffee to discuss strategies and share research. "It turned out we had all the same ideas, the same goals, and the same . . . mainly the same focus on quality and the feeling like it just really didn't exist in San Francisco. The real Northwest quality was missing," Hassi says. "After a couple of espressos we decided to be business partners. It was kind of insane; we really didn't even know each other that well."

The search for a location had its origins in a past visit Hassi had taken to San Francisco shortly after hearing David Eggers read. She'd taken to quipping that she was "going to San Francisco and opening up a coffee shop across the street from Dave Eggers' pirate store." After exploring the neighborhood, it was obvious to her that the Mission was going to be her home.

Incredibly, Tooker had checked out the very space where Ritual would one day be located. He also fell in love with the neighborhood, walked around, and just happened to ask the previous proprietor of the space (a chi-chi home furnishings store) if she knew of anyone on the block that was thinking of giving up their lease. "Or, are you thinking of giving up your lease," he had asked her at the time. "I really love this space."

"Actually, yeah," she had replied. A year later, she said as much to Hassi as well.

"We both loved the Mission," Tooker says. "But we had our doubts we'd do well." People told them that it was too big for a coffee shop. A frequent sentiment from peers was the hope that the ample space would be used.

"The reason we have all the outlets and the Wi-Fi and stuff is because we wanted to fill tables," Tooker says.

And then there was the timing issue. None of the other coffee shops around there opened until 10 a.m.

"We sat on the stoop and tried to count people walking by," Hassi recalls. "We were like, 'there's nobody here early in the morning.'"

"We opened at seven," Tooker says. "We thought we could use that to our advantage, because of the (availability of) parking in the morning."

And it worked; folks came by early for coffee in the morning, and, as word of mouth spread, that "too much" space began to fill up. While Ritual is indeed large for a coffee shop, waiting for a table is now par for the course. The space gets used. About a year into operation, and things seem to be in place for continued success.

Now that we've told you a bit about its beginnings, tune in next time for part two of our look at Ritual Roasters and its people, where we'll reveal some of Ritual's future plans and discuss some extracurricular activities, including their participation in (what we hope will soon be San Francisco's official sport) barista competitions.