The shift towards ever-more-baroque mixology in ever-tinier surroundings hits a new high in SRO, a cash-only venue-within-a-venue that one may enter from gritty Washburn Alley in SoMa or through Oddjob. If you like dark interiors with a pendulous chandelier and a silver-tongued barkeep who plays with fire, it might be your new spot.
See Also: Topsy's Fun House is a Cocktail Carnival
When Keba Konte went to Senegal in 2007, he found something he'd never seen before: raw coffee beans spilled across in iron pan, slowly browning over an open flame. At the time, he was staying with a family who, incidentally, was charged with the job of roasting for the entire community. What Konte saw was a style of coffee called Café Touba, wherein peppers are roasted and ground with the coffee and later brewed with sugar. The process was simple, but for Konte, an enlightening moment.
See also: Six Places to Find Great Coffee in Oakland
Another opening on Valencia, another minor moral conundrum. In the space that used to be a quirky, queer-owned vintage shop called Room 4 comes the second S.F. location of Berkeley-based Chocolatier Blue, an upscale confectioner and ice cream shop. If endless gentrification we must have, would that it were all as gorgeous and delicious as this.
See Also: Sriracha Truffles and Four Barrel Coffee at Socola Chocolates
