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The Citroen H van: Destined to become a San Francisco coffee kiosk?
We
head-scratched yesterday over
City Insider's reporting on Rec and Park's choice of pushcart purveyors. "La Colombe Bakery" in Justin Herman Plaza? Something tells us the would-be vendor is Philadelphia coffee microroaster
La Colombe Torrefaction, seeking a retail foothold in S.F. Rec and Park hasn't returned our calls, but we did get to speak with La Colombe founder and roaster J.P. Iberti, who ― while neither confirming nor denying that he's negotiating with the city ― did say the company has been toying with the idea of a San Francisco launch for some time. "I don't know if it's romance, but we love the West Coast," Iberti said. "But it has to be done in the right way. The cart has some appeal, but there's nothing for sure right now." Iberti also let drop that he'll be in San Francisco later this week. Hmmm.... Could plans include a meeting with Rec and Park?
La Colombe has a couple of retail cafes in Philadelphia, another in Manhattan, and sells beans to an A-list roster of New York restaurants. The company has a small distribution facility in Dogpatch (all beans are roasted in Philly), from which it sells to accounts Iberti describes as "rooted to New York," including Laurent Manrique of Café de la Presse, and the St. Regis.
After shooting down what Iberti called rumors about Justin Herman, he did say La Colombe is flirting with the notion of turning a Citroen H van into a mobile street kiosk. That idea is remarkably like Blue Bottle founder James Freeman's dream of turning a different kind of Euro minivan into a coffee wagon. Coincidence? Or does San Francisco have a bicoastal, Transformers-like battle for kiosk supremacy in its future?
