This was supposed to be an easy-does-it post…

Go to Coffee Bar. Go to Coffee Bar to get a beautiful, just-for-you cup of Clover-made coffee. Go to Coffee Bar because it is not Starbucks, which, not surprisingly, is just around the corner.

And then, upon my second trip into the place, I bugged the barista into letting me take pictures of my coffee being made:

202 Degree F. water goes in, barista stirs with care…

Machine works like a big French Press in reverse and makes what looks like a giant, overbaked sugar cookie…

Out comes one of the best cups of coffee I’ve ever had…

Blah, blah, blah…

Well, I thought, spending more than $10,000 on a coffee machine is so absolutely worth it! And so is the $3.00 charged per cup. Really.

I still think so. If you are a coffee lover and have not had Clover coffee, I suggest you do so. Now.

I was feeling so self-satisfied. I’d had a long, pleasant walk, I was in a sleek, beautiful space with a good book clutched under my arm, and I was being very well caffeinated by a cup of coffee so strong and well balanced, that I felt no need to add sugar or cream, which is atypical of my style. I normally drink kindercafe in the morning. I had everything I needed for a good half hour’s rest-and-refuel.

And then the barista told me that Starbucks had recently bought the company that makes the Clover machine. I felt as though the Publisher’s Clearing House van had just pulled up to my house and, as Ed McMahon was about to hand me my bouquet of balloons and over-sized check, my doctor telephones me to tell me I have only two weeks to live. A certain bitterness crept into my otherwise perfect cup of coffee. I think it was my tears. Or perhaps some of the bile that rose from my esophagus as I tried to digest the news.

Perhaps Starbucks saved enough money from the tips they stole from their baristas to buy Clover’s soul.

I suppose a small consolation is that Coffee Bar was able to purchase its Clover before Starbucks wrapped its caffeinated tentacles around it. And that it’s very much worth experiencing.

I also love the fact that the folks at Coffee Bar are pleasant, helpful, and relatively no-nonsense about their coffee. Their coffee menu is simple:

Sorry, Yelp woman, no cinnamon. Bring your own if it’s that much of an issue for you.

Remind me later to tell you about my mixed feelings about Yelp.

Go to Coffee Bar for a nice, big cup of this:

Nuff said.

Coffee Bar
Open Daily from 7 am
1890 Bryant Street
(Mariposa and Florida)
San Francisco, CA
94110
415-551-8100

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I’m fascinated with food and wine pairings. But I have to admit, I never really considered food and coffee pairings. I love the flavor of coffee, but I’m not a coffee drinker. Somehow the idea of pairing food with coffee sounds like something your grandmother would do when she eats at a diner. But maybe that’s precisely the reason Starbucks is working to bring the two concepts, food and coffee, closer together.

In fact, Starbucks has just launched a collaboration between their master blender, Andrew Linnemann and chef Marcus Samuelsson. They are on tour now, showing off coffee and food pairings. Samuelsson is an interesting choice of partner because he was born in Ethiopia (land of coffee) and yet grew up and learned to cook in Sweden (land of coffeecake?). His influences are far-reaching and his style is very unique often pairing unexpected flavors.

The pairs listed on the Starbucks web site that match coffee blends with a caramelized apple pecan coffee cake or a chocolate cinnamon bread seem somewhat mundane, but the recipes featured in by Samuelsson are a bit more surprising such as Mango Couscous, Beef Stir-Fry and Pineapple Cashew Salad.

Attend a free tasting event with Marcus Samuelsson and Andrew Linnemann

Wednesday, August 29th - - TODAY!
1 - 2:30 pm @ Starbucks
2727 Mariposa St
San Francisco

The event should be eye opening, to say the least!

Note: I know it’s late notice but I only heard about this yesterday. If you end up going, please do share your impressions in the comment section!

The work of Arthur Huang and Mary V. Marsh, perfectly calibrated for this age of confessional eating and exhibitionist documentation, examines the minute rituals of food. Currently on exhibit at Mercury Twenty Gallery in Oakland, the two artists explore our culture of consumption, how we ingest ideas, relationships and expectations along with a few basic nutrients and our daily dose of caffeine.

2002 Diet as Periodic Table

What do you get when you combine an MFA from RISD with a degree in biochemistry and molecular cell biology? If you throw in a healthy dose of OCD and lots of wall space, you wouldn’t be surprised to find Arthur Huang’s elaborate works of dietary classification. Using data-collecting systems of the scientific method, Huang recorded with painstaking detail what he eats for a year. The display of this information in ordered columns and rows, with their evocative colors shading obscure terminology, reveals beautiful patterns. His chart spans an entire wall. You can step back and take in the amazing human endeavor, or you can step close to study his precise data. He provides a helpful key so you can decipher the information in the table. I was delighted to see that Huang had included among his ten categories of food elements a few of my own favorite edibles: Salty Foods, Sweet Foods and Condiments.

His periodic chart is part of an elegantly curated show, “Inscribere,” at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, a gallery within the same complex as Mercury Twenty.

The Coffee Diary

While coffee may have once built empires and fueled revolutions, for most of us, it merely jump starts another workday. Mary V. Marsh bracketed a year of her life and then used the 327 paper coffee cups she purchased to record details of the moment. From mundane routine to memorable events, buying and drinking coffee become interwoven with people, places, movement and repetition. Picking up various cups to read her Sharpie-scratched words, I learned that she ate a pumpkin scone on one day, rode her bike on another and stood in a long line the day when Pete’s was down two employees. As I recount this for a food blog, I must admit the experience was both familiar and eerie.

The works of both Huang and Marsh reveal intimate connections within large-scale systems. Even as you wonder about the ways of science or calculate coffee dollars and carbon miles, you can’t help but feel connected to the daily lives of two living, breathing, eating individuals.

Mercury Twenty Gallery
25 Grand Ave. (at Broadway)
Oakland, CA 94612

Gallery hours are Friday and Saturday, 11:00 am - 2:00 pm, or by appointment. There will be extended gallery hours on Saturdays, August 4, 11 & 25, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm in conjunction with the Unread Book Project Reading Room. For additional information, please contact mercurytwenty@gmail.com.

My friend Lyle is mildly obsessed with coffee. If it’s daylight outside, there is usually a paper take away cup filled with the black, caffeinated liquid within a two-and-a-half foot radius of him. I haven’t measured his wingspan. I’m just telling you it’s nearly always within his reach. Or nestled in a cup holder inside his car. The other night at work, he announced he was going to The Blue Bottle Coffee Co. the next day and was taking orders. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I asked what the big deal was. He mentioned that they happened to serve the best frigging coffee in the city. Only I am not certain he used that precise word.

The next afternoon, after a little bit of directional confusion for which I blame my own genetics and short attention span, I found my way to tiny Linden Street, the block known unofficially as The Artists Alley. I saw a crowd of about fifteen people not-too-neatly queued up in front of what looked like a garage. Lyle was there, off to the side reading a magazine; the remnants of something brown and foamy making its way gradually to the bottom of a little glass in front of him. “Order a Gibraltar,” he said. That’s what he had been drinking while waiting for me. I did as I was told, but I wanted to try their coffee, too. The line wasn’t terribly long– I waited about five minutes for my Gibraltar (which is basically a very short latte with just a titch of foam and, I believe, named after the glass in which it is served) and my cup of drip coffee (one size only, thank you). I threw in a few cookies for good measure and snapped a few photos.

The Gibraltar was good. Very good. I carefully sipped at it a couple of times– creamy, well balanced and rich. I was happy. I thought about swirling it about in the glass as I one might do wine, but the glass is too small and I worried about the likely coffee stains down my shirt and crotch. I headed back to my apartment with Lyle to drink our drip coffee in relative comfort. By relative, I mean in a chair. By chair, I mean a piece of furniture with four legs and perhaps a bit of padding– Blue Bottle has one plywood bench that I believe may have at one time been a seventh grader’s midterm wood shop project. Such is the Blue Bottle’s charm. I can’t say I can blame them for not encouraging people to lounge– the demand for their coffee can be fierce (they regularly sell out of their bags of whole beans)– especially on weekends.

We sipped at the Bella Donovan en route to my apartment. This is, according to Blue Bottle’s website, their most popular blend; “the wool sweater of our blends.” I could feel the caffeine taking hold of me. I was feeling a little light-headed when I go out of Lyle’s car. By the time we got ourselves into seated position–cookies in hand, I had consumed half my coffee. I felt the end of my nose tingle and my cheeks begin to go numb. This is serious coffee. I don’t think I had ever gotten myself this caffeinated before. I hadn’t intended on drinking two Charles Atlas-strength coffees on top of my accustomed morning cup-and-a-half. I felt nauseated. I blame myself, of course, but I now see the warning sign so clearly hinted at in the blend’s name– drinking this blend is like snacking on digitalis; my heart raced wildly and, had I thought to look in the mirror, I am certain my pupils would have been enormous. I hope it made me look pretty.

In spite of my caffeine overdose, I find myself in agreement with Lyle– this coffee is frigging good.

If you are a serious coffee drinker and have not been to Blue Bottle Coffee Company, I suggest you give it a go. In addition to the garage/kiosk at 315 Linden Street, you will find them at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market on Saturdays, brewing and selling their wares.

For much more information, visit their website. It’s an amusing and informative read:

Blue Bottle Coffee Company

More about Blue Bottle on BAB:
Blue Bottle Coffee Redux: One Giant Step for Coffeekind

Coffee Breakthrough