Chic Coffee Shops in the World Boutique Coffee Capital San Francisco

Blue Bottle, a coffee shop that started out in 2005 in San Francisco, aims to serve fresh coffee with attention to detail. In recent years it has taken off in the U.S. and Japan, with 10 stores in the Bay area alone, and further outlets having opened in New York, Los Angeles, and even Tokyo.

The beans they serve are high-quality and fresh, roasted for less than 48 hours to produce an extremely mild, smooth-textured brew. These beans, and their approach to brewing them, are what has given Blue Bottle its reputation in the industry. If you're in San Francisco you have to drop by—and take a bag of the freshest beans home with you!

Ritual Coffee Roasters was one of the earlier boutique shops in San Francisco, and it stands out from the crowd with its distinctive red branding. The storefront is located in the Mission district, which was once a hotbed of Latin American immigrants, but in recent years has been taken over by the newly wealthy tech workers, although it is also the last bastion of the fiercely bohemian hippies of San Francisco. One reason why the Mission has become so popular among the affluent types in recent years is its position as a key coffee battleground in San Francisco. Ritual Coffee Roasters designed its storefront in collaboration with the famous Flora Grubb Gardens, so horticulturally minded visitors are bound to love it.

Sightglass is one of San Francisco's iconic coffee shops. It was founded by brothers Jerad and Justin Morrison, formerly of Blue Bottle. It is more like a combination of warehouse plus workshop plus coffee shop.

The 1st and 2nd floors have bars to place your order, and the 2nd-floor bar also has an extra menu mostly based around SOEs and affogatos. There's also a section of the 2nd floor given over to open taste tests, all naturally involving the finest coffee ingredients.

The 1st floor has an extra-long coffee bar in the center of the room, alongside a stand selling beans and other coffee paraphernalia. Each bag of beans has a minimalist-style label attached, showing in great detail the country of origin, production area, variety, flavor, growing altitude, processing method, and roast date, which is worth keeping hold of as a memento.

Andytown Coffee Roasters, which only just started out here in 2019, has won over the fastidious coffee lovers of San Francisco in double time. It is owned by an Irish husband-and-wife team with an ethos of "transparent sourcing, precise roasting, meticulous grinding, sincere service." The shop is furnished with raw wood, the gnarls of which give it an aged look without compromising the minimalist American style. As well as delicious, strong coffee, Andytown also serves a selection of savory and sweet gluten-free pastries and seasonal sandwiches to choose from.

The shop is also right by Ocean Beach, and you can't go wrong with a stroll along the sand sipping your takeout latte on a beautiful day.

Saint Frank Coffee is known for its bright lighting and wood-based design. The owner used to work at Ritual Coffee and once took 6th place in a nationwide barista competition. A consistent standard of coffee is assured here; it is well known for the quality of its beans. The cappuccino and special-edition winter spicy coffee are especially recommended.