Grand Coffee has served the Mission since 2010. Nabeel Silmi opened it on the idea that good coffee should be a shared experience, and sixteen years on it is, by its own account, “the unofficial living room for the block”, where artists, service workers, long-time residents and newcomers end up on the same pavement. Its slogan is “Good days start here”.

There are two cafés in the Mission, Grand Coffee “OG” and Grand Coffee “Too”. The original has a red-tiled frontage, an order window onto the street and a bench outside under the eye logo.

Grand roasts its own coffee. The flagship blends are Las Pilas, its “bold and bass-y” medium-roast espresso of lots from Huehuetenango and Tolima, with dark chocolate, caramel and apple; La Llave, an Ethiopian and Guatemalan blend for espresso or drip, named for the key as a symbol of new passages and of the Palestinian right of return, with a dollar from every retail bag going to humanitarian aid in the Middle East; Lights On, roasted dark for a straightforward cup; and Mild Child, a Swiss Water decaf. The single origins lean towards emerging producers, such as Stiven Hoyos’s pink bourbon from Huila, a day lot from the Kanzu washing station in Rwanda and the Chiapas Women’s Harvest from 168 women-owned farms around Bella Vista, a project of Rosalba Cifuentes.

The web shop also sells Origami and Kalita drippers, filters, AeroPress kit, subscriptions and T-shirts drawn by local artists, and the coffee is available to cafés and offices through its wholesale programme.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Grand Coffee