The Castro is losing its second major coffee shop in four months, with the popular Market Street location of Peet's set to close later this month, and more Peet's locations are also getting axed.

There was a time not long ago when the Castro neighborhood was dealing with a glut of coffeeshops, with a new one seemingly opening every month. But now, in early 2026, the neighborhood is living without its once popular Starbucks on 18th Street — nicknamed Bearbucks — which closed in September. And news just arrived via Hoodline that Peet's Coffee is shuttering its longtime shop at 2257 Market Street.

The move comes as Peet's, which ceased to be an independent company in 2012 when it was acquired by German conglomerate JAB Holding, is being traded once more. The company, now merged with Dutch conglomerate Jacobs Douwe Egberts as JDE Peet's, was acquired by Keurig Dr. Pepper (KDP) last year. (Interestingly, Keurig, then known as Keurig Green Mountain, was acquired 10 years ago by the same German company, JAB Holding, that acquired Peet's, until it spun off as a private company and acquired Dr Pepper Snapple Group in 2018.)

A press release about the Peet's acquisition last summer discussed "cost synergies," and referred to "KDP’s disruptive legacy." That disruption now comes in the form of  30 local Peet's store closures, including locations in the Castro and Cole Valley (919 Cole Street).

KDP had declined to say where the other closures are happening, but clearly more are coming, to be announced in the coming days. The Castro shop will be closing by the end of January.

"Peet’s has made the difficult decision to close a number of Peet’s Coffee locations by the end of January 2026," said company spokesperson Stephanie O'Brien in a statement to Hoodline. "These closures reflect a broader effort to align our business with long-term growth priorities and current market conditions."

O'Brien added, "We are deeply grateful to our incredible employees and loyal customers for their continued commitment to the brand. As we move forward, we remain dedicated to the quality, craftsmanship, and heritage that have defined Peet’s for the past 60 years, while embracing new opportunities to innovate and grow."

Much like other Bay Area brands that went global, like Blue Bottle Coffee and Ghirardelli Chocolate, Peet's can't claim to be a local enterprise with any particular interest in its local clientele anymore.

Peet's was founded in Berkeley in 1966 as Peet's Coffee, Tea & Spices, near the Gourmet Ghetto at Vine and Walnut streets, where the original shop still stands. Founder Alfred Peet was born in the Netherlands to a father who owned a coffee company, and he later apprenticed at the famous London tea company Twinings, developing a love for tea as well.

When he relocated to San Francisco at the age of 35 in 1955, as the story goes, Peet was dismayed to see the sort of swill that Americans were drinking and calling coffee, saying, "I came to the richest country in the world, so why are they drinking the lousiest coffee?" He set out to change that, and Peet's Coffee, Tea & Spices was born 11 years later.

Peet famously, in 1971, trained the three young entrepeneurs who went on to found Starbucks, and served as the company's coffee supplier and roaster in its early years, until 1973.

Jerry Baldwin, one of those Starbucks c0-founders, bought Peet's four locations in 1984, selling his shares in Starbucks in 1987. Peet's would go on to expand widely and have an IPO in 2001.

Alfred Peet retired to Ashland, Oregon, where he passed away in 2007.

Coffee consolidation is happening across the board, with the once-ubiquitous Starbucks also slashing locations by the hundreds in the last two years.

The number of currently operating Peet's Coffee shops in the US is not clear — estimates seem to be around 280 company-owned locations as of late last year. There are 22 Peet's locations in San Francisco alone, and it sounds like a wide swath might be going away soon.

In this week’s Field Notes: A tween skate star, a giant whale sculpture, floating saunas, a community hub in the making, indie legends at the Greek, and kitsch in San Luis Obispo. Plus, opossum rescues, Fringe Fest weirdness, easy hikes, and Jane at SFMOMA.

One to watch on the ramp

At 11 years old, Oakland’s Anna Shea Reynolds-Madsen is making an impact on the skate world. She first picked up a board by borrowing her sister’s in secret. Within a year, she was skating vert ramps and learning to drop without any lessons or coaches — just trial, error, and a lot of determination.

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Vert skating is rare and demanding, especially for kids. But Anna loves the height, the speed, and the pure physics of it. She’s now competing in national events like Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert, catching air in massive arenas one week and skating DIY parks in the East Bay the next.

She’s got style, and she’s not afraid to be herself. According to a 2023 interview, off the ramp, she draws, plays piano, and crushes it in soccer. Her dream is to go pro, travel the world, and one day snowboard in Iceland. But for now, she’s just a Bay Area kid chasing the next drop-in, fearless and fully in her element. — S1 Helmet Co. / Old Bones Therapy

Golden hour sounds at the Greek

The Greek Theatre’s hillside setting and breezy eucalyptus canopy make it one of the Bay Area’s most atmospheric venues, especially on late-summer nights. This season’s lineup feels tailor-made for the grown-up indie crowd.

Father John Misty headlines there tonight with Lucinda Williams and Hamilton Leithauser — a mellow, melancholic triple bill that suits the venue’s golden-hour glow. Still to come: My Morning Jacket returns August 22 with their signature blend of psychedelic rock and Southern soul, known for long builds and explosive crescendos. On August 28, the Pixies bring their raw, off-kilter alt-rock to the stage alongside Spoon’s sharp, clean hooks and Fazerdaze’s dreamy fuzz-pop.

September 7 promises maximalist spectacle as the Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse team up for a co-headlining show likely to include giant props, bubble machines, and cathartic singalongs. And October 16 brings a long-awaited reunion from Rilo Kiley, with Jenny Lewis leading the band’s bittersweet indie-pop back onto the big stage for the first time in over a decade. — Broke-Ass Stuart

A 24-foot whale and the power of tools

A 24-foot wooden whale just surfaced at Berkeley’s Adventure Playground, thanks to 85 youth builders from Girls Garage. The climbing sculpture — complete with baleen mouth and 3D-printed handholds — was the centerpiece of a month-long summer camp blending carpentry, design, and confidence-building.

First-timers learned to use jigsaws and drills; returning teens mentored and imagined. Instructors say it’s about more than construction—it’s about showing young people their strength. And the whale’s just the latest. Girls Garage also builds free installations like garden beds and tiny homes for community orgs across the Bay. — Berkeleyside

Weird on purpose: The Fringe lives on

Theater veteran Christina Augello has been keeping San Francisco weird since 1983 — and at 77, she’s not slowing down. As founder of The Exit, she’s produced thousands of experimental, often chaotic, and occasionally brilliant shows in the Tenderloin. These days she’s down to just one stage, but her annual San Francisco Fringe Festival marches on from August 8–25, showcasing 15 original productions drawn by lottery.

Expect clown shows, pole acrobatics, spoken word, and a few total flops — because that’s the point. For Augello, creating space for small, strange stories is an act of resistance, and The Exit is still a place where something unforgettable might happen… even if you walk in expecting nothing at all. — Mission Local

Low-effort, high-reward trails near you

No need to trek too far from home for a great hike. This roundup highlights ten top user-rated easy trails, from San Francisco’s coastal Lands End and Oakland’s redwood-filled Redwood Regional Park to Marin’s Dipsea Loop and the peaceful Purisima Creek near Half Moon Bay.

Each trail offers something unique — whether it’s ocean views, towering trees, or quiet forest paths. Best of all, they’re all accessible for a casual stroll with plenty of payoff. — Chronicle

Opossum season in full swing

At Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue, it’s peak opossum season. The all-volunteer nonprofit, based in Oakland, is putting out the call for fosters — especially for babies who need care before they can be released back into the wild.

Volunteers should have backyard space for an outdoor enclosure, plus a little open-mindedness when it comes to these misunderstood marsupials. “They eat rats. They’re gardeners’ friends,” says founder Lila Travis. Between wildfires, fireworks, and summer disruption, the rescue often sees up to 60 opossums at a time, alongside a rotating cast of raccoons, squirrels, and hummingbirds. — KGO

Nordic heat, bay views

A new retreat in Richardson Bay blends Nordic tradition with Bay Area flair — Fjord, a pair of hand-built floating saunas, opens next month along Sausalito’s waterfront. Designed by Marin locals Alex Yenni and Gabe Turner, the twin cedar structures feature 190-degree Finnish-style heat and icy plunge decks—all bobbing gently in the bay.

Each sauna fits six people, with pre-sales now open for the unique “sea-spa” experience. Come for the detox, stay for the view. — Mill Valley Patch

A new Jane in town

SFMOMA is teaming up with local favorite Jane the Bakery to open Jane on Third, a new ground-floor cafe and brunch spot debuting this August. The menu promises fresh salads, quiche, sandwiches, and French toast — with indoor and outdoor seating available and no museum ticket required.

A new mural by Chelsea Ryoko Wong, known for her vibrant scenes of everyday joy, will welcome diners and museum-goers alike. — Secret San Francisco

Coffee, zines, and conversation on College Avenue

Opening this fall in a former Rockridge storefront in Oakland, Local Economy is part coffee shop, part general store, part community clubhouse. The brainchild of couple Alexis Madrigal, of KQED, and writer and editor Sarah Rich, the space will feature a Painted Leopard coffee cart up front, shelves of handmade goods by local makers, and a pair of 8-foot communal tables anchoring the room.

Events like zine workshops, food pop-ups, and author talks will unfold just steps from East Bay Booksellers. Inspired by La Peña and Womb House Books, Local Economy invites neighbors to co-create a shared antidote to Bay Area isolation — one conversation and one cup of coffee at a time. — Chronicle

Kitsch, castles, and light in San Luis Obispo County

Tide pools and sea lions by day, glowing hillsides and speakeasies by night — San Luis Obispo County (aka SLO CAL) has all the ingredients for an extended weekend destination.

Venture from the bubblegum pink fantasyland of the Madonna Inn to Pismo’s ocean bluffs, sip Edna Valley wines (maybe by sidecar), and wander Hearst Castle’s gilded halls before heading north to Paso Robles. There, a tapas dinner sets the stage for Sensorio, a surreal, 15-acre wonderland of light and sound best explored under the stars. — 7x7

Top image: Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips perform in support of the band's "At  War with the Mystics" release at the Greek Theater on July 22, 2006 in  Berkeley, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

Previously: Field Notes: 'Black Spaces' at OCMA, East Bay Skyline Trail Hike, and Tenderloin Museum Turns 10

The 59 Starbucks locations in San Francisco will be trimmed down later this month, with Starbucks telling managers that they are permanently closing seven SF stores on October 22, adding to the city's vacancy woes.

It was a running joke during the 2000s and 2010s that there were way too many Starbucks coffee shops in San Francisco, and that when you’d go get some Starbucks, you’d run into another Starbucks before you finished your Starbucks. They’ve closed a few since their peak, but according to the San Francisco Business Times, there are currently 59 “company-owned Starbucks stores in San Francisco” (a total that doesn’t include Starbucks locations inside big-box stores like Target or Safeway, as those locations are licensed to other companies).

But there are about to be seven fewer Starbucks in SF. That same Business Times report broke the news Tuesday that Starbucks is closing seven San Francisco stores, with an announced closing date of October 22.

There are obviously still quite a few Starbucks stores in San Francisco, as seen above (a map that does not show all of them). The Starbucks store locator still shows dozens and dozens of Starbucks locations currently operating in San Francisco, some within a block or two of each other, and a very large cluster of them near Union Square and downtown.

And all of the shuttering SF Starbucks are squarely within that cluster. (They’re marked in red on the map above.) Given that office vacancies are way up and foot traffic is struggling to return back to pre-pandemic levels, you can imagine why Starbucks is making this call.  

According to an email obtained by the Business Times, Starbucks regional vice president for Northern California Jessica Borton told district managers that there were “several factors” behind the decision to close the shops.

“Determining how and where we invest is done through a standard process of evaluating our store portfolio annually to determine where we can best meet our community and customers’ needs,” Borton’s email continued. “This year those discussions have resulted in making the very difficult decision to close seven of the stores in our area.”

People may jump all over employees’ recent unionization efforts leading to the closures, though as Eater SF points out, neither of the two unionized SF stores (Castro, Inner Sunset) are among the closures. Many SF Starbucks shops’ recently shifted toward removing all of their seating, and that may well have had a negative impact on business. But the likeliest explanation is that those seven Starbucks just weren’t performing well in already saturated areas.

And as Starbucks made a point of telling the Chronicle, they recently opened three new shops in SF, and are investing $2.5 million in renovating other SF locations.

Related: Dreams Of Pumpkin Spice Merlot Nixed As Starbucks Withdraws Beer And Wine Applications [SFist]

Image: Kevin Y. via Yelp

McDonald's still apparently serves their drive-thru coffee exceedingly hot, and a San Francisco woman is claiming that a poorly affixed lid on a coffee cup, served to her at the Fillmore McDonald's, led to her getting serious burns, and she's now suing.

It's not for us to judge the merits of a lawsuit that was filed last week in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of octogenarian Mable Childress. But the outlines of it are extremely similar to a noted lawsuit from the early 90s, known as Liebeck v. McDonald’s. In that suit, a 79-year-old woman, Stella Liebeck, was ultimately awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages over third-degree burns that Liebeck sustained to her legs and groin from some scalding McDonald's coffee, over which she was hospitalized.

Liebeck's award was ultimately reduced to $480,000, and the parties settled for an undisclosed amount, said to be $160,000. But that suit made national headlines and became synonymous with frivolous litigation — though multiple other plaintiffs have sued and won over burns from coffee and other hot beverages, against McDonald's and other companies.

In another similar case, a Louisiana woman sued Burger King over hot coffee that spilled on her in a drive-thru in 2012; and a convenience store chain in New Jersey paid out a $3 million settlement in 2020 over hot water spilled on a three-year-old child. In multiple instances, judges have dismissed these suits as well.

But, as NBC Bay Area reports, Ms. Childress is seeking damages from the McDonald's at 1100 Fillmore Street in San Francisco over a similar June 13 hot-beverage incident. Childress claims that when she went to take a drink from her cup at the drive-thru, "scalding coffee poured out of the cup" causing burns to her groin. Childress says she went into the restaurant to complain to employees, but they allegedly "ignored" and "refused to help her."

Dylan Hackett, Childress's attorney, tells SFGate that the McDonald's employees "didn’t give her the time of day," and she then took herself to the hospital.

Peter Ou, the owner of the Fillmore McDonald's franchise, gave a statement to the Today show, which has since picked up the story, saying, "My restaurants have strict food safety protocols in place, including training crew to ensure lids on hot beverages are secure. We take every customer complaint seriously — and when Ms. Childress reported her experience to us later that day, our employees and management team spoke to her within a few minutes and offered assistance. We’re reviewing this new legal claim in detail."

It's unclear what amount of money Childress is seeking, but per NBC Bay Area, the filing indicates it is "an unlimited civil case that could exceed $25,000."

This McDonald's has seen its share of troubles in the past. Four people were injured in a shooting there in 2019, and a man was fatally shot in this McDonald's drive-thru in February 2016. Later that same year, in September 2016, a pair of Folsom Street Fair tourists were allegedly gay-bashed outside the restaurant.

Photo: Erik McLean

A second location of SoMa’s Sextant Coffee Roasters will fill the void left by Valencia Street late-night pizza place Arinell Pizza, with an opening date of late next month.

It was nearly a year ago to the day when we learned that Valencia Street late-night drunken pizza slice destination Arinell Pizza had closed permanently after 33 years at Valencia and 16th streets. But we now have news that a new jolt will wake up that 509 Valencia Street location, as Eater SF reports that South of Market cafe Sextant Coffee Roasters will be moving in to the former Arinell Pizza space, establishing their second location in the city.

Sextant Coffee Roasters’ SoMa location has been serving Ethiopian coffee at Tenth and Folsom streets since 2014. The new Valencia Street location will also be owned and operated by Ethiopian-born Kinani Ahmed, recognized by the StarChefs' 2016 Rising Stars Gala, and who’s previously owned the former Jebena Coffee & Tea in the Tenderloin.

“I’ve lived here for the last 33 years,” Ahmed told Eater SF. “I was born in Ethiopia but have lived here most of my life. I’m a part of the community, and I want to be a part of the Mission community, too.”

Eater SF reports the new space will serve an array of Ethiopian coffees, as well as Brazilian and Colombian coffees too. There will also be house-made syrups, and matcha lattes, which fills a void after the closing of nearby Stonemill Matcha drew huge lines in late August.

In terms of food, the French Spot chef Vincent Attali will reportedly provide pastries, and open-faced breakfast sandwiches will also be on the menu.

According to Eater SF, the new Valencia Street Sextant Coffee Roasters is planning to open “by the end of October.”

Related: Noooo! Arinell Pizza Has Closed After 33 Years on Valencia Street [SFist]

Image: Dave L. via Yelp

Hold onto your gift cards, as the chain-store unionization movement in SF just got a shot from the Starbucks at 18th and Castro Streets, which voted to unionize in results confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

We learned to live without the Castro Starbucks, nicknamed “Bearbucks,” when it closed between last Christmas and this past April over plumbing issues. But you may want to save your Starbucks gift cards to use at that particular Starbucks at 4094 18th Street (at Castro Street), because something big has been brewing there. Just three months after two Starbucks locations in Santa Cruz became the first unionized Starbucks shops in California, SFGate reports that the Castro Starbucks has also voted to unionize.

If certified, it will be the first unionized Starbucks in San Francisco.

"We're very proud of the results today," James Kreiss, an employee at the Castro Starbucks. "We hope this win encourages our San Francisco sister stores to seek a union too. Staff and customers have gone through the ringer this past year with inconsistent staffing and store availability — we appreciate the support our community has shown us and the continued support as we begin the long process of negotiations with Starbucks."

The vote was reportedly 7-2 in favor of unionizing, with 15 eligible voters, only nine of whom cast ballots, per SFGate.

The Castro District’s supervisor, Rafael Mandelman, said in a statement on Twitter, "Many congratulations to the Castro Starbucks employees on their historic vote to become San Francisco's first unionized Starbucks store. In an era of growing income inequality, successful efforts to organize low-wage private sector workers remind us that there is still power in a union and San Francisco is still a union town."

Starbucks has five days to challenge the vote, and if they do not, the result is automatically certified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Supervisor Dean Preston, who authored a Board of Supervisors resolution in support of the effort, was obviously pleased. “It takes tremendous courage and determination to form a union, especially in a climate where too often big corporations engage in blatant union busting activity,” Preston told SFGate. “I’m proud of Starbucks employees here and across the country who are unionizing their workplaces.”

While the company has not commented on this outcome, Starbucks is obviously steamed over these unionization efforts. The chain is asking for a halt to mail-in balloting in these votes, alleging improper conduct by the NLRB. (It's unclear if mail ballots were used in this election.) Oh, and those Santa Cruz Starbucks that unionized in May? Employees at one of them have already gone on strike.

Related: Employees at Two Santa Cruz Starbucks Locations Have Voted To Unionize [SFist]

Image: Don O. via Yelp

A beloved and eccentric business out in the Avenues has called it quits after 15 years, and we should all take a moment to mourn it.

Trouble Coffee, a unique coffeeshop that served as a path to mental and financial stability for its owner, Giulietta Carrelli, and meanwhile became touchstone business for one of San Francisco's most foggy, quirky corners, has closed. Carrelli hasn't commented publicly on the closure, but as the Chronicle reports, she personally handed the space at 4033 Judah Street off to neighbors Laura Seymour and Colin O'Malley, who operate DamnFine Pizza — which opened in January 2021 — and the nearby Sunset Cantina. Seymour and O'Malley plan to open DamnFine Coffee in the space, continuing to serve coffee and toast and some other items, but things will be quite different than at Trouble Coffee.

By the time "$4 toast" became a mantra and an oft-repeated symbol of everything that was wrong, overly precious, and overly gentrified about San Francisco a decade ago, Carrelli had been making thick slices of cinnamon toast for her customers for about five years already. And no one was complaining.

As Carrelli explained in an episode of This American Life from 2014, there was never anything precious or artisanal about Trouble Coffee. The business, and its idiosyncratic menu of coffee, young coconuts, cinnamon toast, and grapefruit juice, grew out of the mental-health episodes Carrelli had had since she was a teenager — something she'd always just referred to as "trouble" before it was diagnosed as schizoaffective disorder in her early 30s. Food seemed like poison to her when the trouble set in, but coconuts were oddly one of the few things she could stand to consume — and they're fairly nutritious as along as you get some vitamin C as well, hence the grapefruit juice.

As for the toast, she explained, "My mom used to make me toast. And so when I was first opening up Trouble, I wanted to feel safe. Toast was that for me. And I also knew it was going to be that for a lot of people. Nobody can be mad at toast. I mean, it's toast. It's cinnamon toast. Everybody's stoked."

It started with coffee because that seemed like a business she could handle, with zero experience. She had been working, and sometimes sleeping in, a coffeeshop elsewhere in town, and her boss there gave her the advice about opening her own shop which was all she needed: "He was like, just get some cups, brew some coffee. When you run out of cups, close the door and go get more cups."

Trouble Coffee opened in 2007 as The Trouble Coffee and Coconut Club, and soon gained a following. Carrelli, with her face tattoos, and other tattoos, and outfits that usually included a crop top, said that she looked the way she did in order that people would recognize her — and maybe help guide her home if she was having a bad episode. And the coffeeshop was part of that self-preservation plan, too.

"There's just so many people connected through this network of Trouble Coffee. I may just be a little tiny place, but it's pretty well-known, because I need to be well-known," Carrelli told This American Life. "I mean, I was just walking to my house before you guys got here. And it was this man with his son, and he goes, hey, you're Trouble, right? And I just went, I sure am."

It would be five years between Carrelli's first cinnamon toast orders and the trend that would get traced back to her — in part through higher-profile, more bougie businesses like The Mill. Josey Baker, the owner and baker at The Mill, gave the credit to Carrelli, telling This American Life that's pretty much where to look for the $4 toast origin story — even though Trouble's toast was always a bit cheaper.

Now it's almost quaint that people were grousing about toast ten years ago — and most of them, likely, hadn't even tried Baker's or Carrelli's toast, they were just complaining on the internet about the very concept of expensive toast, ignorant of the wonders — or price — of good, thick-cut, toasted fresh bread and delicious toppings.

The reasons could be many for Trouble closing, and we shouldn't speculate — the coffeeshop tried to expand in the last decade with locations in the Bayview and in West Oakland, but both of those have since closed, and in January the business was vandalized, with a window and some neon that had to be replaced.

At the upcoming DamnFine Coffee, you can expect cinnamon and avocado toasts on focaccia bread, Seymour tells the Chronicle, as well as pizza by the slice. Also, pastries from Black Jet Baking Co. — which made some headlines for itself this week with its gleefully profane cakes protesting the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade overturning.

DamnFine Coffee opens this weekend, and you may recognize some of Trouble's employees, who will be back working behind the counter.

Related: The Eight Best Slices Of Toast (That Like Ruined San Francisco Or Whatever)

Photo: Giulietta Carrelli/Instagram

Now a six-cafe mini-empire, Ritual Coffee Roasters will offer employees shares of stock and the chance to be worker-owners at the company.

The year 2021 had not been a banner year for small-batch coffee chain Ritual Coffee Roasters. The chain suffered a public scandal back in June when owner Eileen Rinaldi’s eccentric character husband “Chicken John” Rinaldi screamed a racial epithet, which riled up the barista community and effectively forced the owner to fire her own husband. Then in October, the Haight Street location was hit by bullet fire in a drive-by shooting, and while thankfully no one was hurt, you can understand staff would be pretty rattled.

But 2021 may be ending on a fabulous note, for Ritual Coffee Roasters employees at least. Mission Local is reporting that Ritual Coffee Roasters will become worker-owned, eventually offering an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) where workers can buy ownership shares of stock in the company.

“I love what I do and I find it endlessly challenging and fulfilling and rewarding,” owner Eileen Rinaldi told Mission Local. “I would love for Ritual to operate for 80 years. To me, ESOP is the answer.”

It’s not really clear yet how this employee stock program will work — after all, this stock does not yet appear to exist. So this is all just in the planning phases. “Rinaldi will retain the majority of the shares — it’s still being decided how shares will be distributed — but hopes her stake will diminish each year,” Mission Local reports. “She can imagine a time when she will no longer own any.”

Of course, there have been times when companies made similar grand announcements and never followed through. Four Barrel Coffee announced they would become worker-owned in the wake of a 2018 sexual assault scandal, but as the Chronicle reported later that year, that shit never actually happened.

But Ritual doesn’t seem to be making this move for PR reasons. And given the degree to which their logo seemingly resembles the hammer and sickle, it seems philosophically in character that the company would make such a proletarian move.

“I think about like, oh, in 2055, there could be a 50th-anniversary party,” Rinaldi told Mission Local. “But I’m not going to be the one planning that party.”

Related: Unfazed By The Castro's Coffee Glut, Ritual Will Take Over The Wildcraft Space [SFist]

Image: Andrew D. via Yelp

The Art Deco-styled Round House Cafe on the SF side of the Golden Gate Bridge is getting a new tenant, and it's none other than Marin County-based Equator Coffees.

For several years, the 1,600-square-foot Round House Cafe, built in 1938 to complement the one-year-old bridge, has been operated by the Golden Gate National Parks Conversancy. They had been serving bread bowls and hot dogs and such, as Eater notes, but in January 2020 (pre-pandemic), they announced the closure of the Round House, saying, "Like many restaurants in the Bay Area, we faced increasing challenges in food preparation services."

The Conservancy also said it would be collaborating with the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District to "re-envision" the Round House.

Now, as the SF Business Times first reported, they're announcing the deal with Equator, who also contracts with the Conservancy to sell coffee at the Warming Hut at Crissy Field.

"The Golden Gate Bridge represents who we are as a people and as a country — our community coming together to imagine and construct what we thought to be impossible,” said Helen Russell, Equator's chief executive chair, in a statement.

Russel added, "To see this iconic, legendary bridge that we’ve all read about, and to know that the Round House Cafe has been there since the 30s — it’s an amazing opportunity for Equator to move into a space and honor its history and heritage, and also create memorable experiences for all those who travel through our doors."

The LGBTQ-founded, woman-owned Equator Coffee was founded in 1995 in a Marin County garage. Russell founded it with Brooke McDonnell, who now serves as Chief Product Officer, and the company is now based in San Anselmo.

Equator also has locations in Mill Valley, Oakland, and in the LinkedIn building in SoMa — but its Tenderloin location next to the Warfield, famed for that $15 pour-over, closed permanently when the pandemic began.

At the Round House Cafe, Equator plans to serve its fair-trade, small-batch coffees, as well as toasts, breakfast burritos, hot chocolate, soups, salads, pastries, and hand pies. There's no word on whether pour-overs will top out at $15, or less.

The plan is to open, following a remodel, by late summer or early fall.

Equator has also been selected as the vendor for the conservancy's concession area on Alcatraz Island as well.

Photo via Equator Coffees

The cycle from homegrown, artisanal coffee bar on an alley to selling out to an international food conglomerate is complete, as it's announced today that Swiss food giant Nestle has purchased a 68-percent majority stake in Bay Area-based Blue Bottle Coffee. The move, which follows many similar buyouts and acquisitions of well loved local beer, wine, and coffee brands over the last decade or so, may be a good one for Blue Bottle's current growth strategy and the retirement plans of its soft-spoken founder, James Freeman. But for fans of the 15-year-old roaster and coffee bar chain — at least the ones who disdain the ongoing corporatization of our world in favor of the small-scale, scrappy sort of coffee places of the sort Blue Bottle was not that long ago — this could just be a final nail in the coffin of a brand that was already spreading itself more thin than they liked.

The New York Times doesn't have the financial details of the deal, but they say it marks "one of the surest signs yet of how so-called third-wave specialty coffee — the kind that inspires almost monastic devotion to pour-over brews and perfectly steeped drinks — has become a hot business."

Business Insider says Nestle is paying $500 million for Blue Bottle based on a $700 million valuation. The remaining 32 percent of the company is owned by Freeman, and some managers and employees.

"Their commitment to us was, ‘We love what you do, we want to help you grow,’” Freeman tells the Times. "One of the biggest food companies in the world has really voted in favor of very delicious coffee."

"My goal as CEO has been to secure a sustainable future for Blue Bottle Coffee that would enable it to flourish for many years to come," Blue Bottle Coffee CEO Bryan Meehan says in a statement. "I'm excited to work with Nestlé to take a long-term approach to becoming a global leader in specialty coffee."

Blue Bottle expanded well beyond the Bay Area in the last five years, with ten locations each in New York and LA, a half dozen in Tokyo, one in Washington D.C., and more already about to open in Boston and Miami — causing many an SF coffee snob to write them off for losing their small-scale cred.

It seems like just yesterday we were hearing that beloved SF bakery and restaurant Tartine was headed into a partnership with Blue Bottle, only to walk away from the bargaining table six months later in favor of staying independent — a move that was largely seen as Tartine deciding that Blue Bottle wanted to grow at a rate that couldn't be sustained Tartine's by-hand bread- and pastry-making ethos.

Another Bay Area coffee brand, Peet's, which was more of the Starbucks "second wave" in age, was snapped up by German conglomerate JAB Holdings in 2012, which in turn also bought Stumptown in 2015.

The majority stake means that Blue Bottle is now part of a portfolio that includes the Nescafe and Nespresso brands, as well as Stouffer's, Gerber baby food, and Friskies cat food.

And this announcement will give neighbors in San Francisco's Lower Haight neighborhood reason for relief — and I-told-you-so's from those who fought it — after they successfully blocked Blue Bottle from taking over a space occupied by a beloved neighborhood cafe for two decades, thanks to an established ban on chain retail.

So, you can rest assured that Blue Bottle probably won't be opening any more locations in SF anytime soon, unless they're in a mall food court.

Previously: Blue Bottle Blocked From Opening In The Lower Haight Amid Neighborhood Revolt

Cold brew. It's all the rage. It is beloved, especially on warm days, by many a coffee-toting hip kid and soccer mom, but it necessarily leads to the question of whether coffee really ought to be brewed cold, what the process does to coffee, and why do people now prefer and demand this when the world got by just fine with icing hot-brewed coffee for a century or more?

SFist spoke to several professionals in the local coffee sphere to extract their thoughts and opinions on the matter. But first, I begin with Nick Cho of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters in Cow Hollow, who let it all spill out about cold brew in an interview with San Francisco Magazine this month. Cho says cold brew, which is often made by letting coffee steep in room temperature water for lengthy periods of time and then filtering out the grounds, has an astringent "old coffee" taste. "I’m not saying people shouldn’t drink cold brew coffee. I’m just saying it’s not good," he says.

Sidebar: Cho and partner (in business and in life) Trish Rothgeb are opening a second cafe on Mission Street this fall (exact location TBA), and they are both cult figures and heroes in the national coffee industry. Cho is well known as a contrarian, and Rothgeb is famous for having coined the term "third-wave coffee," the moniker that is now attached to all the artisanal roasteries and coffee shops that arose after the "second wave" of US coffee consumption that came with the rise of companies like Starbucks and Peet's — the first wave being Maxwell House and Hills Bros. and the like.

Cho argues further to SF Mag that for all the acidity-loving third-wave roasters who roast things so lightly these days that "it's going to knock your teeth out," cold brew should be antithetical. He explains that "by its very nature, the drawn-out process of making cold brew means that certain acids in the coffee wind up breaking down," leaving the final product too bitter, and necessitating milk and sugar to cover it up.

To counter that, Ritual Roasters founder Eileen Hassi Rinaldi says she was "VERY skeptical" about cold brew when she first heard about it over a decade ago, but she found when her team first started doing cold brew (way ahead of the curve in 2005) that it can have "a super clean, crisp flavor," in contrast to the "funky" flavor she finds in hot-brewed coffee that's been chilled. "That crispness is what won me over," she says. "It’s what you want on a day that’s too hot for hot coffee." She says they've tweaked the recipe for their cold brew over the years, and notes that they've added the slightly carbonated nitro cold brew on tap at two of their locations, Valencia Street and Napa. And Rinaldi adds that as she was heading off to Burning Man this week she was packing a couple of growlers of Ritual cold brew for the playa.

Rinaldi acknowledges, though, that as cold brew has exploded in popularity, "there’s a huge range of quality" out there, and that could account for some of the backlash from people like Cho.

Shannon Amitin, formerly a roaster at Blue Bottle who now works as Lead Beverage Trainer for La Boulangerie de San Francisco, tells SFist "I love cold brew," and echoes Rinaldi's thoughts on its clean and crisp flavor.

SFist also spoke to Four Barrel barista Bobby Sanchez who says "I'm not a cold coffee drinker," but he says that "people who love it go crazy." Four Barrel makes a point of marketing their "Not-Cold Brew" which is extracted hot and then immediately cooled "way down without the intrusion of oxygen and other funky stuff."

"I think no one puts a lot of love into cold brew," says Sanchez. "As a barista it's always been a gross process. Toddies. Wool filters. Cloth bags. [It] Never seemed super appealing." Obviously this is not how Four Barrel does it, and Sanchez adds that other coffee shops seem to use lower quality or "aged-out" beans to make cold brew, which results in a lesser quality product.

So, whether you're on Cho's side of this debate, or whether you want to try a few of these methods out for yourself, we can chalk this up to yet another first-world argument that can be left up to the coffee cognoscenti to sort out.

As he tells SF Mag, "Coffee is so amazing a thing that you can fuck it up 12,000 different ways, and people will line up every morning. Even if we mess it up, there’s something that people still like about it."

Previously: Blue Bottle Blocked From Opening In The Lower Haight Amid Neighborhood Revolt

Another one bites the dust, my friends. It's been widely acknowledged that too many cafés and coffee venues had opened in the Castro in the last few years, and the great shakeout continues this week with the closure of the illy Caffè on Market Street. Hoodline confirms the news with the company, which issued a PR response encouraging everyone to visit their other lowercase illy Caffè locations at 123 Battery Street, 2055 Union Street, and the newest one at 90 New Montgomery.

The plan is to close the Castro shop as of this Friday, June 30.

In their statement, illy's rep said, "While it was a fantastic location, the foot traffic throughout the week did not support the ongoing operations."

While Artis gave up quickly on their Castro location last year, and the small Wildcraft espresso bar (a half block down from illy) closed a few months back, two other coffee spots have moved into the 'hood since then. Verve opened their location at Church and Market this past winter, and Ritual just opened a new location in the space Wildcraft was in.

And did I mention that there's also Weaver's Coffee on the brief walk between illy and Ritual? And that Peet's is on the next block on the way to Verve?

Anyway, there remain about a dozen places to buy coffee and/or sit down and enjoy your coffee all within about six blocks, just one fewer now than there were.

Espressamente illy Caffe - 2349 Market St between Noe and Castro

Related: The 13 Best Cafés That Are Also Basically Co-Working Spaces

If you've always wanted your half-caf soy latte to be served by Captain Underpants himself, crazy-eyed Giants right-fielder Hunter Pence will be joining teammate Denard Span on Tuesday, May 30, to work as baristas at two SF Peet's Coffee locations, so you'll have your chance. The stunt is a promotion for Peet's 2017 Giants Clubhouse Blend coffee, as the Chronicle reports, and if you want to see both players in action, you'll have to make a very fast cross-town trek.

Pence and Span won't actually be slinging coffee drinks at the same location — Pence will be at the Ferry Building Peet's from 11 a.m. to noon, while Span will spend the same hour at the 2080 Chestnut Street location in the Marina.

It's unclear whether Pence will actually be forced to operate the espresso machine himself, or not.

In related and intriguing news, Pence recently told entrepreneur and business guru Gary Vaynerchuk (around the 4:30 mark in the video below) that he and wife Alexis have plans to open a coffee shop with board games, a place that reflects their mutual love of gaming. Is that a plan for San Francisco, Hunter? Amusingly, he also talks about how he almost had a career as a "professional" World of Warcraft player.

Peet's has partnered every year with the Giants and the Warriors to create custom blends, and five percent of this year's Giants Clubhouse Blend proceeds will go to the Giants Community Fund, which funds programs aimed especially at kids to raise awareness about healthy eating, violence prevention, and more.

Previously: Hunter Pence Got Engaged, Everybody

Though it's been widely noted that the Castro needs another coffee shop like a hole in the head, Ritual Coffee still seems to think there's room for them to grow there, and they've announced that they're moving in on the small vacant storefront at the corner of Noe and Market that was most recently occupied by Wildcraft Espresso Bar. Hoodline caught the news via Ritual co-founder Eileen Rinaldi, who said of the space, "It's only about 350 square feet, but there's something magical about a tiny cafe in such a dense neighborhood."

Expect to see the new location open this Thursday morning.

This will be Ritual's fifth location in San Francisco, following on the company's expansion to the Upper Haight a couple of years ago, and including their kiosk at Proxy in Hayes Valley, their kiosk at Flora Grubb in the Bayview, and their Mission flagship location. Ritual also has a stand at Napa's Oxbow Market.

Wildcraft shut its doors in March at 2299 Market Street, after attracting a small following in the 'hood for their sheep's milk coffee drinks. And coffee seems to be showing no signs of over-saturation despite there being well over a dozen coffee options within just a few blocks here.

Santa Cruz-based Verve Coffee just opened at Church and Market in February, and there's been only one notable coffee shop closing recently, Artis, which only lasted a year at 18th and Castro before shuttering last summer.

Ritual Coffee - 2299 Market Street at the intersection of Market and 16th - Opening Thursday

We saw this coming last summer as soon as news broke that Blue Bottle Coffee had set its sights on a corner spot in the Lower Haight that was for two decades the home of a well loved neighborhood coffee shop, and now it has come to pass. Following some loud opposition in the neighborhood, the Planning Commission has voted to deny a conditional use permit to Blue Bottle moving into 201 Steiner Street on the basis of the neighborhood's ban on formula retail — defined as any retail chain with more than 11 locations. As SF Weekly reports, the vote was 4-2 in favor of the opposition, which was led by the Lower Haight Merchants and Neighbors Association and a group formed by former District 5 supervisor candidate Dean Preston called Neighbors United.

Many may still consider Blue Bottle to be a small, home-grown, local business, which at one time not that long ago it was. But in recent years, the company has expanded widely, opening several dozen locations that now include outposts in LA, New York, and Tokyo — a total of 34 in all. They still maintain their humble kiosk on Linden Street in Hayes Valley, their first SF outpost, but neighbors and local merchants in the Lower Haight, including nearby, longstanding cafes like The Grind and Cafe du Soleil, saw the move by Blue Bottle as a threat. Whether or not people still see Blue Bottle as a local business was clearly up for debate — and the prevailing message, which was obviously enough to convince four of the Planning commissioners, was that this exception to the formula retail ban shouldn't be made lest it encourage more landlords to seek exceptions.

Hoodline reports that one neighbor who spoke at the Planning Commission hearing said, "In terms of the many projects and chain stores we've seen in nearby neighborhoods, this should be rejected [to send] a message [that] the property owner should rent to a local."

Reportedly, the number of people who spoke at the meeting against the Blue Bottle proposal far outnumbered those who showed up to support Blue Bottle.

For 21 years, this location at Steiner and Waller Streets was home to Bean There, a locally born cafe that was forced to close in early 2016 following an all-too-familiar-sounding landlord dispute. The closing was initially framed as temporary, apparently, because of a required earthquake retrofit, but from there the landlord Danny Scher and the cafe owner Mike Fakhoury disagree on what went down, with Fakhoury insisting that Scher was simply pushing him out in order to get a higher-paying tenant. As of last summer, that tenant emerged as Blue Bottle, and after a number of months and some quiet campaigning on both sides, the permit application went before the Planning Commission, complete with renderings for the new cafe by Blue Bottle. Community outreach efforts by Blue Bottle apparently failed to generate enough support to outnumber those opposed.

Neighbors United's Jen Snyder, who formerly worked on Preston's D5 campaign, characterized the group's work as "fighting for the soul of San Francisco," telling SF Weekly, "When we turn out in large numbers to make our voices heard, our community wins." And neighborhood resident Hal Fischer, who helped gather signatures and drum up opposition to Blue Bottle, tells the paper, "This is a huge victory for preserving the character of our neighborhood."

Previously: Blue Bottle Is Still Trying To Move Into Former Bean There Cafe Space In Lower Haight