I recently checked out Local 123 (2049 San Pablo Avenue Berkeley, CA) and Farley’s East (33 Grand Avenue Oakland, CA). I also finally got around to visiting the blue bottle cafe near jack london square (300 Webster St Oakland, CA)
blue bottle cafe
espresso with blue bottle
the ristretto was predictably enjoyable – bright and with a bit of sweetness that lingered. I also had a sandwich with meat from boccalone and some cookie to go with. the space is nice – well-lit with natural light but pretty small – there’s a cupping area and then more space in the back for bags and bags of coffee bean storage and roasting.
local 123
Local 123 is just south of University Ave on San Pablo – near Lanesplitter and Acme.
pretty rosettaespresso in the patio
(apologies for the iphone photos)
local 123 brews flying goat coffee and they made a tasty ristretto. I don’t remember details of the taste other than the fact that I really enjoyed it. the two people working there who we interacted with were super friendly and the barista offered another shot if this one wasn’t to my liking. the space is nice, with big prints of tasteful and uncheesy square-formatted naturey photos and a nice outdoor seating area.
farley’s east
they pull bottomless shots here from a la marzocco. The espresso was not bad, but not as good as I’d enjoyed from local 123 and blue bottle. compared to the two shots above, this one tasted a little staler and darker. still not bad though. they use beans roasted by sunrise coffee in san leandro.
espresso from farley's east
I liked their interior and the magazine selection and the friendly person at the counter who took my order. I got a cold turkey sandwich – it was good. there’s fun art on the walls and deception by blackalicious was playing as I picked up my sandwich.
it was a monday and the bakesale betty nearby was closed for the day. I wonder how much more business area cafes receive on mondays and if there’s a correlation. the windows of the subway next door were still broken as a result of the opportunistic rioting that took place after the mehserle verdict was announced.
subway window, broken
I saw quite a few windows being repaired in Oakland today:
single espresso from awaken cafe (414 14th st, oakland, CA) using taylor maid farms coffee. don’t remember which blend. it was not bad but definitely not awesome. I also had their Bay Caprese sandwich – delicious!
yet-to-open cafe/lounge miam.miam (5856 college ave) just posted a huge blue bottle banner in their window. after having a banner in the window promising frozen yogurt in “summer 2009” and then “holiday 2009” from peeks into their front door, it looks like they’re finally getting closer to opening. The huge banner is a little misleading – the size of it makes you think that blue bottle is actually opening at that location, but not so.
Bittersweet, just down the street also serves blue bottle (or at least they did last time I was there), so miam.miam isn’t alone.
this gets me to thinking – blue bottle’s got a pretty strong brand going if cafes are clamoring to serve their coffee and use it in their advertising, right?
on a slightly related note, scream sorbet is opening up a shop at 51st and telegraph in temescal (5030 telegraph ave), 2 doors down from bakesale betty. they’re scheduled to open in June, according to a not-fake poster.
they’ve got a hilarious set of fake posters in the window:
scream sorbet posters
hilarious fake ads and websites:
“squidazzle! Bringing squid and squid-based technologies to the greater bay area since early 2010. We’ll make you aware what the squid has to share”
“the root seller: your year-roud source for roots and tubers”
“the mauve emporium: love mauve? so do we! finally, the store that’s nothing but mauve. If it’s arguably mauve… we’ve got it!”
“TROUGH: food by the minute – Grand opening special!!! Only $9.99 for 10 minutes! That’s less than a dollar a minute!!” (looks like landing page is broken)
“MARZIPAN MADNESS – The DIY almond paste sensation that’s sweeping the nation!”
update 3 (September 2012): Cafe Zoe is now Old Brooklyn Bagels. The same la marzocco machine is in there though..
update 2: samples today but real opening is on sunday the 20th 7am-7pm
update: via teh twitters, @cafezoeoakland is prepping for a 6/18 opening, pending inspection.
—
peeked through the window of cafe zoe in rockridge and saw this:
the under-construction cafe zoe, through the window
there hasn’t been a lot to be found about cafe zoe (6000 college ave) on the interwebs, which had been vacant for quite some time (one year? two years?) Apparently it used to be Baby World but they seem to have moved over to the Temescal neighborhood.
Anyways, back to the photo: Rockridge is a neighborhood with a pretty high cafe per resident ratio, but I’ve yet to find a place with espresso that I really like. On College ave, there’s Cole Coffee (who have a consistent gathering of people sipping coffee outside), A Cuppa Tea, Spasso, and Peaberry’s in Market Hall. I don’t remember what the espresso was like from Bittersweet or Hudson Bay Cafe, but the fact that it wasn’t memorable probably means something. Though each of the places have their draw, I wouldn’t go to any of just for an espresso unless I really needed a caffeine fix. The nearest place to me is the relatively new Remedy Coffee in Temescal, who do a really nice job with Ritual’s beans.
The machine in the photo is a La Marzocco FB80, a dual-boilered, PID’ed out crema-churning beauty (with some nice detailed reviews) that runs somewhere between $11,000 and $17,000 depending on how many groups you want. A little searching online found this job posting which indicates that Cafe Zoe will be serving award-winning Ecco Caffe coffee (whose coffee I have not tried but hope to soon, as they are planning to relocate their roastery and open a cafe in portrero hill).
I’ve seen this machine before at the Blue Bottle in Williamsburg. So, I’m excited. serious coffee + serious machine + a job description that implies a serious commitment to coffee (“The espresso bar was designed with the barista in mind! Super equipment, great workflow, and the best view in the house.”) probably means serious coffee.
Abraco (86 East 7th Street New York) is a small space with a strong smell of coffee and a distinctive neon sign that is featured prominently as their logo on their website. The beans are from counter culture, and the guy apparently has Bay Area roots and had previous experience at blue bottle. For more information, there’s a good writeup in New York magazine.
Abraco’s website pushes some delicious looking pastries, but I only ended up getting an espresso:
abraco: espresso
The espresso, a ristretto, had a very “traditional” taste to me.
As claimed, the place was tiny and crowded. Nothing wrong with that.
abraco: crowded insideabraco: baristasabraco: from the sidewalk
Sam and I continued walking in the east village, headed towards brooklyn but in search of food.
I only ended up with a shot of the bathroom. “Please be good”
We took a little stroll through Tompkins Square Park and then came across Busy Bee Bikes (437 East 6th Street, New York, NY)
busy bee bikes
Nothing too crazy here. You can see a pretty big used part selection behind the glass on the right and a pretty bright paint job outside where some of the people from the shop were working on repairs.
busy bee bikes: sunny sidewalk shot
Our next stop was Bike Works (106 Ridge Street, New York), just on the manhattan side of the Williamsburg bridge. they had a decent selection of cycling caps here, so I picked a couple up as souvenirs.
The city was painting new bike lanes on Rivington St as we approached the Williamsburg bridge. Fresh green paint!
new bike lines on rivington st! (or at least I think it was rivington)
Williamsburg bridge photos:
williamsburg bridge
Heavily covered with graffiti good and bad:
williamsburg bridge: I don't think this needed to be covered up
aand plenty crowded with cyclists and pedestrians. It was cool to see the variety of styles. There were old beater bikes, fixies with chopped bars, cheapo mountain bikes and nice road bikes.
williamsburg bridge: a cyclist, eyeing me suspiciously
We took a break to sit down and rest our legs in Williamsburg. There was some group ride going on that looked more instructional than anything else:
back in brooklyn
we started walking in the general direction of park slope, feet and legs starting to get tired. I happened to spot Bicycle Station (171 Park Avenue, Brooklyn, NY). I went in for a bit. The shop seemed small, and relatively sparse possibly due to the fact that they had moved to this location not too long ago. A family came in with a bunch of bikes needing attention and they were starting the repair as I left.
I believe this is bicycle station
I stopped into La Bagel Delight for some food and then took a quick peek into Bespoke Bicycles (64-B Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn) before meeting Sam for a beer at Mullanes across the street. It was well-lit with some beautiful signage.
bespoke bicycles
replenished and rested, we continued towards park slope.
Saw this on Atlantic Ave:
prizes! (trash)
worst prizes ever. but cool tape job.
This little amendment to the BNE sticker took some planning. I got a kick out of it:
"big nut eater". seriously, no love for BNE.
we had some time to spare before meeting up with Sam’s friend for dinner, so naturally we walked up and down 5th and 7th avenues.
Stopped into R&A Cycles (105 5th Avenue Brooklyn) for a second:
R&A Cycles: storefront
R&A has a big shop with many fancy road/tri/whatever bikes.
passed by Dixon’s (792 Union Street Brooklyn), so I stepped in for a second too:
dixon's bike shop wall. But this wasn't actually dixon's
Dixon’s is also a pretty large shop but their focus seemed to be used bikes and repairs:
dixon's bike shop: interior
We walked on to Tea Lounge (837 Union Street Brooklyn) where I didn’t get more coffee because I was already 2 espressos in for the day. Instead, we sat on a comfy couch and rested.
chalkboard outside of tea lounge
I tried making a google map of all of the places visited but am having a hard time embedding that onto this site. So, here’s a list of places that I visited (thanks again to Brooklyn by Bike and the New York Times Interactive Coffee Map! and the people who helped me along the way)
the cruiser, parked across the street from lit fuse
my time for the rental was running out and I was meeting friends at pacifico for dinner. I left lit fuse and rode through downtown brooklyn to get back to recycle a bicycle.
there were a lot of bike lanes going on here under the manhattan bridge (sands st and jay st)happyface sadface
chris at recycleabicycle invited me in to take more pictures.
ridiculous amount of used bikes and parts.left crank armsforkslots and lotscrates of brakesright crank arms
I took the subway back to my sister’s place in manhattan. It was kind of sad to leave the cruiser behind.
I caught this before the end of the night:
chop
your brake levers overlap! but I suppose it’s good to at least have brakes.
I had to work the next day but continued the bike shop and coffee tour the day after that, on foot with my friend sam.
first stop: stumptown.
I was debating whether to post this. ok shepard fairey, you win.stumptown barista
I was really impressed with stumptown (18 West 27th Street New York, NY). It’s a really well done little spot attached to the swank ace hotel.
stumptown: menu
the line was about 8-10 deep, which was a bit long but manageable.
stumptown: grinding and brewing
there was lots of fun stuff, coffee and not coffee related on the walls.
stumptown: espresso
stumptown’s espresso was my favorite of the tour by far.
saw this guy parked outside stumptown:
is this comfortable? I kind of wanted to hop on and try it out.
has anyone ridden a no-nose saddle before?
next stop: conrad’s in tudor city.
conrad's store front
conrad’s bike shop (25 Tudor City Place New York, NY) looked like they got pretty serious with the bike fitting:
conrad's interior. bike fit setup is the 2nd bike inconrad's interior
there was a decent selection of apparel and accessories as well as many fancy bikes on the floor.
sam and I walked down to the east village next, to hit abraco.
this guy had a good look:
riding a strida? on 10th st
and this note, hilarious:
nobikes, bike, note
“Don’t come crying when we cut your chain and remove your bicycle from the fence! THAT’S A BIG SIGN!”
here’s the coffee counter from the ritual trailer (‘sputnik’) at this year’s maker faire:
ritual trailer counter at maker faire, may 2010
here it was last year at the eat real festival in oakland:
ritual truck counter at eat real festival, august 2009
we got a flight of espresso. $7 got you a shot of each of these costa rican coffees:
five candles seasonal blend
el alto, grace calderon jimenez
los chachones, arturo chacon
the five candles was my favorite. I’m not big on tasting notes, but it tasted buttery.
I wasn’t very diligent with the pictures, so I present here 2/3 of a flight:
ritual coffee espresso flight at maker faire: five candles seasonal blendritual coffee espresso flight at maker faire: el alto, grace calderon jimenez single origin shot
