Entries Tagged 'Reviews' ↓

We had a tight timeline our first morning in Auckland after getting off the plane at 4.30am – shower, breakfast, post office, US Consulate. I’d researched a couple of likely coffee places in the central city seeing as that’s where the Consulate was. Espresso Workshop in the new Britomart Centre was our first pick, especially as we also had to report for the train there early Saturday morning and I wanted to see if that was a likely option for avoiding train coffee or a 2.5 hour ride to Hamilton on no coffee at all! (Sadly it didn’t open early enough so we had to have a few sips of warm milk with a slight coffee flavor from Sierra in the railway station before boarding the train).

Breakfast at Espresso Workshop this morning was perfect for our first meal back in New Zealand. Wonderful thick cut white toast and great coffee. I was happy!

Espresso Workshop, Britomart Espresso Bar, 11 Britomart Place, Auckland Central @EspressoWrkshop

Went for a walk today over to Ritch Street – a couple of blocks from work – to try out another Blue Bottle place over there and to see the lunch options our colleagues had told us about. Centro serves Blue Bottle and it’s just a hole in the wall, next to it is Little Skillet which turns out to be a tiny take-away version of Framer Brown that we went to with Bev and Dan earlier in the week (yum, I had meat loaf and mashed sweet potato – my god the portions are huge) and near by on the same street is a small parking lot with a couple of different food trucks that visit each day (Indian and Mexican today) and a sandwich shop Darwin.

So quite an interesting little street!

Here’s the holes in the wall Centro and Little Skillet.

The coffee was great – nice Blue Bottle flavor but perhaps lacking the balls and glossiness of the actual Blue Bottle outlets. We sat on a loading dock across the road and had our coffee in the sun.

Stopped at Darwin and got a mozzarella and basil baguette to share for lunch. Made fresh in front of us – man it was good!

Centro, 330 Ritch Street, San Francisco, @centro330

Following our #5 trip last week out to Golden Gate park we traveled the route again this week to go to the 2nd of the independent cafes that we’d discovered were along the route – last weekend Velo Rouge, this week, Matching Half.

It’s in the suburbs on a cross-street – the 4 corners taken up by the coffee shop, a restaurant, a market and a craft workshop.

The cafe looks quite new inside but I’m not sure if it is. It’s a clean open spot with windows on 2 sides, a handful of tables and a bar inside and a few tables in the sun on both sides on the pavement. They had a menu offering made-to-order sandwiches, bagels, baguettes and a cabinet of baked goods. The sandwiches going past our table looked good – we ate croissants from the bakery cabinet. The cafe was full of people on their computers or studying from books. Not a kid in sight. The only slightly unpleasant side effect of grilled cheese sandwiches was that strong acrid smell of burnt cheese on the George Forman grill or whatever they were using – I’m sure my hair still smells of it!

They use Sightglass coffee (we went to their cafe/roastery not long after we got here) and the coffee had that flavor – it was well made but had that strong fruity edge that RBC NYC has too – not my favorite but a damn good cup of coffee nevertheless!

Matching Half Cafe, 1799 McAllister, San Francisco

Our New Year’s Day trip on the #5 bus took us past 2 potentially good looking coffee shops so we chose to visit Velo Rouge which was walking distance to Golden Gate Park afterwards.

It’s a funky place, cyclist-themed art work and furniture, bike stands and lycra-clad customers with about 10 tables inside and 3 or 4 outside. It’s a lovely corner spot to sit and watch the world go by.

They serve Blue Bottle coffee and a fairly extensive range of brunch and lunch items – this time we ate – I had some delicious and fairly light French toast and fruit and The Mister had a beef sandwich which was enormous and the bean, corn and whatever-else-they-had-in-the-fridge salad was jostling for room on the dinner plate and overflowed all over the table the minute he stuck his fork in! The coffee had potential – it was good but a little on the strong side because the order was to stay and it came in porcelain, but at least it was a tulip cup so they’re sticking to the proper Blue Bottle way of doing things.

The cafe is not too far from the park that you might be able to get there and find a park bench on which to enjoy a take away coffee.

Velo Rouge, 798 Arguello Blvd San Francisco, @velorougecafe

I’m famous on the Xero blog again! To finish off the year with a nice personal post seeing as most of the rest of Xero is off on holiday in New Zealand or Australia where it’s summer I did a piece on the coffee I’ve had in the States on the trips I’ve been on for Xero in the 4 months since we’ve been here.

It was fun to write and it’s getting a few comments and suggestions which is very pleasing! Take a look – Coffee in the USA.

We were walking back from an errand in town earlier this week and saw a huge red sign above a store on Folsom Street.

Huh? Seriously? ‘Coffee bar & boutique electronics.’ Just a block from work? Was it too good to be true? We went up and peered in the window, the door was closed and the window was fairly reflective so I couldn’t see in until my nose was practically pressed up against the glass and HELLO – cool dudes, coffee machine, bar stools, bags of Blue Bottle beans, coffee menu and hario rack. Yes!

We burst through the door and rather too exuberantly greeted the 2 guys inside. They’d just opened that weekend. It’s a very VERY cool open space inside where they’re going to showcase and sell high end audio equipment with a coffee bar to the side. The Mister’s eyes were bulging already, they didn’t have much equipment set up but I could just see him cogitating on where his next home theatre was coming from! Anyway, back to the coffee (and we’ve had several now) – consistently good, smooth, strong, good temperature and very well made. They’re very methodical and careful in their technique and each day we’ve gone in there has been a growing crowd of lads making coffee – they’re all in their training period. I hope they maintain this care as they mature.

It’s funny, The Mister reckons when they see me coming they bring out everyone to make the coffee!

Everyone is so friendly and interested to hear about Xero and Vend and they’re grateful to have some regulars so early on. I do feel bad for Eipcenter, but Elite’s coffee is so much better and a tad closer to the office. We encouraged them to get on Twitter and it was awesome to see one of their first tweets:

Elite Audio Cafe, 891 Folsom St, San Francisco, @eliteaudiocafe

Without diplomacy or agenda, based on taste & consistency, these are the best places I’ve had coffee in 2011.

1. Ninth Street Espresso Chelsea Market – New York
2. Customs Brew Bar – Wellington
3. Blue Bottle Ferry – San Francisco
4. Stumptown Ace Hotel – New York
5. Blue Bottle Mint – San Francisco
6. Public Domain – Portland
7. RBC NYC – New York
8. People’s Garage – Wellington
9. Stumptown Roasters – Portland
10. Fuel Espresso Willis – Wellington

Yesterday I consulted the SF Best Coffee App to find somewhere new to try for coffee. With our Christmas shopping done, we still wanted to hang around town enjoying the Christmas spirit but didn’t really want to go to the shops – so we rode the BART out to the Mission to try Grand Coffee – great coffee pictures on their website and they use Four Barrel coffee.

I know many people rate the Mission but I just haven’t warmed to it. I guess I won’t be taken seriously as a real San Franciscan until I can say how much I love it – the quirky shops, independent retailers, happnin bars, street stalls, free spirits and great restaurants – right now I still feel quite unsafe going there and the streets have an interesting smell of urine and bulk packs of laundry detergent.

I thought we were lost when we were almost at the address and we were in the middle of fruit stalls in the street, 2 dollar shops and a Western store, when I saw the awning over a small window and door normally barricaded behind a metal security gate. Lovely.

We stepped into a tiny kiosk space – not what we expected at all. The barista station took up most of the space with a small bench and 3 stools for customers – except on this day it seemed to be full of staff who’d recently come off shift and were counting out their tips.

The coffee was well made, milk not expertly poured and it was too hot. But tasted OK.

We sat outside in the sun (the staff hadn’t moved by the time our individually crafted coffees were made) and watched the comings and goings – also discovered that the number 14 bus seemed to go into town every 5 minutes so we jumped on that for a ride back into the city. Bus rides are always interesting here – all manner of shopping and conversations.

Grand Coffee, 2663 Mission Street, San Francisco, @grandcoffeesf

Joy of joys – found a decent coffee place in Midtown! Met up with my cousin-out-law on this trip and she suggested it because it was near to her work. It’s on the ground floor of one of those elaborate marble and metal sky scrapers in Midtown, with it’s exterior and signage in keeping with the building so on first glance it looks like a 50’s tea room and not worth a look.

But on the inside there are a few small tables, a lot of counter space given to coffee making machinery and Stumptown coffee.

The place was bustling with people getting takeaways but we 3 managed to squeeze around a dinner plate-sized table and catch up for an hour and a half. Coffee was strong and delicious. But no bathroom!! Had to practice pelvic floor exercises putting on coats, crossing busy 42nd Street and oozing our way through the crowds at Grand Central Station to line up with travelers and tourists in their public bathroom!

Rize Coffee, 42 Street (at Lexington), New York

We’ve been to Joe’s Coffee in Grand Central Station a couple of time but this trip we were wandering through Central Park on a Sunday and The Mister suggested we try the Columbus Ave cafe. It was a teeny tiny cafe, as many serving good coffee are, with just a few tables inside and benches out front. I lined up for a couple of cappuccinos and was surprised when I collected them to be given a voucher for a free coffee. When I excitedly exclaimed how great the coffees looked and thanked the baristas enthusiastically they said “You’re awesome – here’s a coffee on us next time.” Pays to be appreciative!

A spot opened up on the bench out front so we sat in the relatively warm sun and enjoyed our coffee. We were entertained by a rather intense local resident in a shouting match with the people who worked at the barber shop next door – from what I could work out, one of the workers during their break had blown smoke on him as he was leaving the store – he was shouting about getting them deported and managed to rally support from another guy who was walking down the street who also felt now was a good time to complain about a bad haircut he got the week before. Everyone sitting on Joe’s benches was just staring into their coffee and The Mister was nervous of being swept up in the cause trying to find a moment when they were all looking the other way to grab a photo!

The coffee was good and strong and the right temperate and I enjoyed mine with some kind of homemade cranberry granola bar.

Joe’s Coffee, 514 Columbus Avenue, New York @joecoffeenyc