Congratulations goes out to Chris Baca of Ritual Coffee Roasters after he "dazzled" judges at the Specialty Coffee Association of America's Western Regional Barista Competition this past Sunday. The barista outperformed, outwitted, and outlasted 33 of the top baristas in California. Awesome. The judges, it seems, were wooed by Baca's signature drink, "a three-tiered liquid cherry-lime cheesecake concoction." According to Baca, "I came up with the concept at about 2 a.m. while sleeping on......

Although Peet's Coffee kiosks will open up at lucky BART stations later this year, it seems that you won't be able to drink your morning drug while riding to work. Pft. A heavy fine for being caught drinking or eating on Bart, according to the Oakland Tribune, can cost you $250 and up to 48 hours of community service. (BART Police Patrol Bureau Cmdr. Travis Gibson tells the Tribune that "[r]iders can eat and drink inside 'free areas' outside the fare gates ... [b]ut, once inside the 'paid area,' which includes the platform, sipping and chewing are strictly forbidden." Jesus.) Strange, since BART has been giving away free coffee certificates over the past few months....

Photo credit: WhatImSeeing Around 150 protesters were arrested during yesterday's anti-war protest -- "a lesson on how to do it right," raves C.W. Nevius! -- during a rally that was, for the most part, a peaceful affair. Although a few hooligans hurled glass Christmas ornaments loaded with paint at San Francisco police, which seems a bit unnecessary considering how tolerant the police force here acts compared to larger cities such as Los Angeles, people......

Visitors to all the standalone Starbucks across the country yesterday evening couldn't get their buzz on. Why? Because of the temporary national shutdown. Starbucks workers, like these on busy Masonic (where there will be a rally to make that avenue safer at 11:00AM this morning by the way), learned how to do things the Starbuckian way last night. So. What do think, espresso fans? Did it work? Were the "parters" (aka workers) "energized"? Was......

Although we're only occasional smokers (read: when we're drunk or feeling awkward at a party), we sympathize with the need to have a cigarette. And while the smoking ban at bars and everywhere else has kept everyone relatively secondhand smoke free, the constant browbeating smokers receive from non-smokers is enough to make the anarchists in us want to light up in front of all the naysayers. That's when this article on bars working around the......

For as much as everyone pretends to be indie coffee house-loving, Starbucks-hating, people of god -- we're not. Especially when we're lazy. If we're in the financial district and want our half-caff, venti macchiato with a double shot of sugar-free vanilla and only want to walk two steps from our door to get it, so be it. We're going to Starbucks. But NOT, however, on February 26th between the hours of 5:30 to 8:30 PM.......

Tomorrow is BART Rider Appreciation / Thank You Day, and you, dear BART riders, will reap the benefits. The people at TransFair USA will give away 50,000 coupons for a shot of fair trade espresso from Tully's Coffee. Perfect for getting a move on in the morning and getting things moving, you know, down there. And remember, folks: That's tomorrow, January 31, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the more heavily-footed stations, like Civic......

Now that donuts have made a return to Bay Area coffee houses--minus its exhausting Homer Simpsonesque, white-trash irony--you can find the preferable pastries at places like Ritual Coffee Roasters (vegan! and actually good!), Seattle's Best at Border's Books & Music (double-glazed), and even Starbucks (plasticky). With the return of the donut comes the return of the brewed coffee. At least, according to today's New York Times, which profiles the Blue Bottle Cafe, scheduled to......

If only results of this Kaisar study came out on Friday. Then we may have seen more interesting placards at Walk for Life on Saturday. "Coffee Kills," "Vegan, Caffeine-Free, and Pro-Life," for example. Why such a small study is making headlines in print and on television, we have no idea. The lives of pregnant women are already so limited, what with no drinking allowed, no drugging allowed, no hot-tubbing allowed, etc, etc. Despite the fact......

Come volunteer to give away free espresso to support fair trade...

First off, our heart goes out to all of you who took the Ferry this morning. Do you need dry some toast or Ginger Ale? Because: barf. SFist received word from one poor passenger who took the first boat into SF this morning, just before Golden Gate Transit suspended all service. It seems the ride was "bad, which included euphemistic warnings from the Captain 'hold on it’s gonna be a bit bumpy.' Bumpy in......

The sexy cats over at ValleyWag have the fresh MySpace office shots that you want. Or not. Formerly the home of LookSmart, the new space will be able to call other fresh, hip, cutting edge, perpetually hungover, youth-oriented spots like Current TV, SF Weekly, Wired, Chronicle Books, Sammy Hagar's place to do body shots, that abnormally chic pet store, Happy Donut, Nova, and even the flophouse that also known as SFist as their neighbors.......

Ah, today should be a citywide holiday, it really really should. December 5th marks the 74th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, just a tick of the geological clock since that final state (Utah, who else) grudgingly ratified the 21st Amendment. You couldn't really blame the Prohibitionists for their distaste for John Barleycorn. A flood of cheap corn whiskey in the early years of the nineteenth century changed the way an already soggy American......

Why, what a delightful holiday refreshment table shot. Found in our Flickr page, and taken at some festive party this weekend, it has all of the staples of an imminent San Francisco gathering: hummus (thank you for remembering the olive oil drizzle!); simple crudité orbiting a coffee mug used to hold, ugh, dip (a most vile word for such a critical item); wine; chives used to accent; whimsically out-of-season platter holding the baked goods;......

By Frances Reade Eugene Robinson has been the leader of S.F.'s most dangerous art-rock band Oxbow since 1989. We don’t mean Oxbow is "dangerous" as in "Tipper-Gore-no-likey." We mean "dangerous" like “Eugene is known to lurch into the crowd mid-set and strangle irritating audience members into unconsciousness." "Dangerous" as in "the man strips down and brandishes his pee-pee in a threatening manner onstage." "Dangerous” as in… "awesome." Besides slinging 18 years of sweet, sludgy......

Mission hipster haven, Ritual Roasters, is hosting a stellar art event organized by curator/painter/illustrator extraordinaire, Sacha Eckes. The show runs through December 2nd and features artists Timothy Buckwalter, Bill Dunlap, Sacha Eckes, Nancy Mizuno Elliott, Christopher Jernberg, Alexis Mackenzie, Paul Madonna (whom we interviewed in May), Mike Monteiro, Fred Rinne, Brion Nudah Rosch & Ifton Schlinger and Micke Tong. Each artist has created about three pieces of art, which have been framed in white,......

Prints + good tunes = the Pipettes -- The Pipettes: This all-female, British, Phil-Spector-sounding band gains more and more popularity by the day. See them tonight so that by next year when they're too big for SF venues, you can say you saw them when. They perform with Social Studies and Monster Bobby (read our interview with him here!) -- the Ladybug Transistor, who were scheduled to go on, will not be appearing -- tonight......

It really is all about the other side of Market Street now. Along with neighborhoods that we've heard of before like Pike Place in Seattle; Hillcrest in San Diego; and Park Slope in Brooklyn, N.Y. -- our xenophobia runs deep, folks -- as well as hoods that we've never heard of such as Chatham Village, Pittsburgh; Eastern Market neighborhood of Washington, D.C.; Elmwood Village in Buffalo, N.Y.; and Old West Austin in Austin, our......

Aspiring painters of urban village scenes would do well to get themselves to Bernal Heights at once. From the armada of sandwich boards and the pony-tailed guy enjoying a pensive cup of coffee at Progressive Grounds, to the verdant street trees and the pair of rowdy sidewalk philosophers holding court near the eastern end of the block, it’s quite the bustling display along Cortland Ave. Private lives seem a low priority here, as even the back yards of local bars, cafés, and restaurants are open for business. Sidewalk rest stops are a big calling card on Cortland between Andover and Bennington, the heart of Bernal Heights’ vibrant commercial district. There are benches in front of restaurants (Valentina Ristorante), benches in front of salons (Bernal Heights Nail Care), benches in front of markets (The Good Life Grocery), benches in front of saloons (Wild Side West). The result: A remarkable feeling of community, evinced by how it appears as if everyone might actually know everyone else’s name. It’s like a West Coast version of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry...only on Cortland, there’s no Barney Fife. Auditions may or may not be held regularly at Skip’s Tavern and Wild Side West for the role of Otis the Harmless Town Drunk....

Not to be outdone by San Francisco's own zip code fibbing person of the people, Green Party follower and Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board member Chris Kavanagh, according to today's Matier and Ross, "was hauled out of an Oakland coffee shop [Cole's Coffee Shop] in handcuffs today" and thrown in the clink on fraud charges for lying about his Berkeley residence. It seems that he actually lived on 63rd Street in Oakland, where he was......

Last year's Park(ing) Day at Ritual Coffee Roasters on Valencia Street. It's Park(ing) Day, folks. Today's the day REBAR, a San Francisco-based art collective, thought of taking parking spaces and turning them into public ones by creating fun-sized parks. Now cities all over the country are getting in on it. It's a fun idea and we recommend you check any number of these spaces out today before this happens to them. Community Walk has a......

-- Madcat Women's International Film Festival -- Frame by Frame: Experimental film festival's night focusing on animation, claymation, and digital shorts all directed by women. Starts at 8:30 p.m. at El Rio, 3158 Mission; $7-$20. -- "Fashion Rewind: Play It. Make It. Wear It.": Art Institute of California-San Francisco students create original fashions with the two themes in mind: recycled materials and music icons. So...we have no idea what to expect. But you will......

-- Bridge? Closed. (They're gone! Quick, put away the bongs, and bust out the vodka, straws, and mirrors!) [Examiner] -- Near, far, wherever you are, free Wi-Fi must go on. [eWEEK] -- Two bodies found in Ingleside Heights. [Chron] -- Also, four other attacks in SF. How lovely. [SFist] -- While out jogging, Ross Mirkarimi helps apprehend two Western Addition drive-by suspects. Oh, Ross, you's so strong! [Chron] -- Good to the last drop,......

Since our trimethyldioxypurist is on the road for Labor Day, we're stepping in on the caffeine beat to pass along some sad news: Peet's Coffee founder Alfred Peet died earlier this week (Wednesday) in Oregon. Mr. Peet, born in Holland, opened the first Peet's at Walnut and Vine in Berkeley in 1966, and watched it spread nationwide (there's Peet's in New England now?). And the rumors you've heard about the Peet's/Starbucks connections are true: the......

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. We should totally put needle disposal boxes in Golden Gate Park. Also, C.W. Nevius says that Newsom called him and yelled at him for 45 minutes after he wrote his first article on the issue. We'd put that call on mute. Gentrification is destroying Polk Street. City contractors still use sweatshop labor. Annalee Newitz has mice. Sonic Reducer's still at the Guardian. Cover article: Local bands to watch. You've......

Step right up! Step right up! The Gavin Newsom San Francisco carnival is coming to town! SEE .... the horrors that abound in the San Francisco Housing Authority! GAWK..... at the desperate lives of people trying to get by in the sub-standard apartment units provided by the city! GASP..... at the pitiful amounts of money residents try to live on! And then.... open your wallets! Won't you help.... for the children? We're not even really......

-- Total lunar eclipse starts tonight. [NASA] -- GNS doesn't care for the new progressive candidate, Quintin Mecke. But after looking him over, we want to ask Quintin out for some coffee, maybe a movie, and...who knows? We're just saying is all. Heh. Yeah. [GNS] -- SF teenager shot three times. [Chron] -- Mother Teresa questioned God's existence. Heathen. [BeyondChron] -- Tiny 2.4 quake hardly rocks Berkeley this morning. [Chron] -- South Beach living,......

_Football_NYFF109300x312.jpg" width="240" height="250" image class="imgright"/>With the pre-season in full force (for what it's worth, the Silver and Black are 1-1), #1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell is still at home, hanging with his homies. As of right here, right now, JaMarcus hasn't put his name to paper. So, what up? ...

Friend of SFist James Guzzi, who is with TransFair USA, alerted us to a cool event his group is holding tomorrow night in Dolores Park. Black Gold is about coffee farmers in Ethiopia and helps to hammer home the importance of using fair trade products. Show up at 7:30 p.m. to sample some goodies (chocolate, coffee); the movie starts at 8:30 p.m....

Last night's innovative Chicken John/Josh Wolf Mayoral debate brought in "a dozen or so citizens," artists, and political fetishists. Even though it was on a Sunday night, anyone who cares about politics, SF, and progressiveness shouldn't have missed it. Naturally, we couldn't make it. Big Brother was on, and we're concerned about Jen and the near-physically/sexually-violent way that men in the Big Brother house have been treating her. Also, it was nomination night. But......