There are many fine examples of patisseries and boulangeries that make wonderful coffee. Cocola, located in the Westfield, that wondrous new monstrosity of a shopping complex, is not one of them. While we're confident that most savvy SFist readers would have realized this on some fundamental level, we hoped that our instincts would prove wrong. After all, most everyone gets dragged on occasion to the mall or a similar place they'd rather not be; the promise of a decent cup of joe in the Westfield would have done much to mitigate our own reluctance.

The last time our wife made us (your Trimethyldioxypurist and son [Formula-ist? Trimeth Jr?]) come to the mall with her, we were happy to see a Peet's coffee right there on the food court level. We actually bought a pound of coffee, since we like Peet's fine and wanted our free drip. After the money changed hands, we asked for our bonus prize -- and the clerk told us that "We aren't really a Peet's, we're part of [the adjacent] Bristol Farms." And that, in addition to accidentally supporting a non-union grocer (per the ever-present protesters at the mall's entrances), meant we were S.O.L. in getting that free drip. Umm, then why is the branding just like a real Peet's, with no asterisk or disclaimer? You don't go to McDonald's to be told "sorry, no Happy Meals here," for crying out loud. We're pretty mad about this, and at the "real Peet's" too for allowing it. So "fake Peet's" at the Westfield is now a no-no for us, and was certainly not an option on this trip.

We wonder if a decent coffee purveyor could really make a go of it in a place like the Westfield, where the cost of doing business must be astronomical, and prices would need to reflect that. It's natural for management to look for opportunities to cut corners. It'd be nice, though, if for once an establishment at a large venue like the Westfield would say "great coffee would enhance our product," rather than "coffee's not our main thing; it doesn't really matter."

In any case, we tried Cocola, which is on the top floor (aside from the movie theater level), near the rather nice sitting area, and hoped for the best.