Réveille Coffee started with a single coffee truck in Jackson Square and now has five cafés in San Francisco and one in Berkeley. Its head roaster has travelled to farms to learn about their operations and concerns, and the green coffee comes through “value-aligned” importers, for traceable lots such as a Wush Wush from Jhonatan Gasca’s Finca Zarza in Huila and a Gatta farm lot from Bensa in Sidama. “We care this much so you don’t have to, unless you want to and then ask us anything.”
The roasting happens in Mission Bay, where the café doubles as Réveille’s roasting headquarters and visitors can watch the German-made Probat at work. That room also has a full menu, a smoothie and juice bar and a sunny outdoor seating area. The first bricks-and-mortar café is in North Beach, at the meeting point of the old Barbary Coast, Chinatown and Jackson Square, with City Lights Bookstore out of one window and the Zoetrope building out of the other, a full kitchen and seats inside and out.
The Russian Hill café is a bright corner room with high lofted ceilings, an all-day menu, a weekend brunch and a heated parklet. The Lower Haight café is down the street from Duboce Park on a bike route, with minimalist decor and salads and sandwiches. The Marina café has an industrial feel softened by wood. Across the bay, the Berkeley café has an expansive patio and a menu of reimagined café classics and seasonal bowls. None of the cafés takes reservations or phone orders.
Coffee on the shelf
- Cacao
- Florals
- Stewed strawberries
- Apricot
- Strawberry cream
- Apricot
- Lime
- Raspberry
- Mandarin
- Dried cherry
- Tamarind
- Chocolate
Photograph: Réveille Coffee Co.