I never have coffee or any other drinks to-go as if I’m in a hurry I just sit down for 5 min, drink, and then go. So one of my pet peeves is places that give you paper or plastic cups even when you emphasize that you’re going to drink it there. And it bothers me even more when I see that they have actual non-disposable cups hidden behind the counter. This is enough for me to X-list a place, as I find this practice unacceptable in such an environmentally-aware city as San Francisco, where plastic bags are not allowed, composting is compulsory and the city has detailed guides on what green products people should by. Beyond the green side of things, using paper/plastic cups also interferes with the taste of the drink. Even if it’s in a minor way, for places that pride themselves in having amazing gourmet coffee it’s a baffling issue.

So what’s up with you, coffeeshop owners and baristas of San Francisco? Why are you so fond of using paper and plastic? Are you allergic to dishwashing or what? Would you toss out your cups and plates from every meal at home? Maybe some of you do, which is kinda terrifying.

Pictured here you can see the waste produced by a meeting hiphapa, humin and I had the other day at Jebena (at least the plate was not throw-away, I guess it could have been worse). And as much as I love Little Bird, I also have to point a finger at them as one of the offenders in this despicable disposable cup trend. If you don’t want to be green, then at least be smart about your money. If I’m eating in, give me the option of a proper ceramic or glass cup so that you don’t have to buy new cups all the time, thus saving money for your business.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled Loin…

For those who have been to France, whether it’s the atmosphere or the healthy dose of butter, there’s the solid calorie-laden fact that the croissants are damned tasty in that country. When back home (which is most of the time), I’ve found it pretty hard to find a good croissant (or most any pastry that isn’t some trendy agave-bacon-maple joke). Many say, “Oh, oh! Boulange, boulange! C’est très magnifique!” Um, yeah, I guess it’s alright if you’re standing in front of one and feeling lazy, but in reality, Pâtisserie Philippe is about the only place in San Francisco to get real croissants (or most any pasty that finds its religion to be butter-based).

There are a couple problems with Pâtisserie Phillipe. One is that it’s down at Townsend and 7th. I ain’t got no fixie, so that means I’m walkin’ and that’s a mighty far walk. The other problem is that it’s not terribly cheap. So enters, my local favorite:

Gateway Croissants. No, not Gateway Donuts or Gateway Cupcakes, but Gateway mutha-fuckin’ Croissants at Golden Gate & Larkin. This shop who doesn’t waste time with no stinkin’ website, puts out a pretty solid offer such as the chocolate croissant (don’t know what’s up with the top):

Or perhaps, just a normal croissant:

They’re both reliably good. Parisian? Well, not quite, but still very tasty. And at $1.70 for the regular/ $1.85 for the filled, also affordable, which is a lost concept in these “artisanal” times. I just wish that they were actually a tad on the smaller size as I’m not 20 anymore and one does indeed need to watch one’s figure, which is naturally tough when confronted by the other offerings at Gateway:

I first noticed the cute, hand-painted words “Little Bird” on a storefront next to Whiskey Thieves on Geary a couple of weeks ago after getting drinks at Edinburgh Castle, and I wondered if it was a new place. Lately I constantly get the impression that old places are actually new (is it because of the summer light? some of them have been cleaning up their facades? balloons?), and the window looked kind of scratched, so I thought it must have been one of the places in the Loin I’ve never noticed before.

A few days later I passed by it again, and noticed a Ritual Coffee sign. Given the hiptitude Ritual enjoys, this obviously wasn’t an old place. When I looked it up on Google, I couldn’t find any website or reference to it. Last week, I finally saw the place open and it definitely looked new, cozy and inviting. Unfortunately, I was running to an appointment and couldn’t investigate any further. In the last couple of days I’ve walked by it a few more times and it became obvious that the place was calling my name, but timeliness has not been on my side to check it out.

This morning I couldn’t hold it anymore and had to go down there with fellow Tenderbloggers humin and hiphapa to satisfy my curiosity. We ended up chatting for a couple of hours with the extremely friendly co-owner, Dave Blood (his real name).

So here’s the story: Dave (pictured on the right) is the manager of Whiskey Thieves, as well as Dirty Thieves and Thieves Tavern in the Mission (they all have the same owner). For some reason that he couldn’t quite figure out, when the space next to Whiskey Thieves became available some 9 months ago, he started thinking about trying something new and opening a cafe.

Apparently the space used to be a grungy cafe/bar named Caffeine that was open until the wee hours and wasn’t anything memorable; at least we don’t remember it well. The co-owner of Little Bird is no other than the Thieves’ owner’s wife, Chelsea Addison Torres. She’s the one who decorated the place and designed the beautiful floral counter top, as well as the cute Little Bird logo that first caught my attention.

Chelsea, who we unfortunately didn’t meet today, is also responsible for a rather unusual feature of Little Bird: the kids’ area (pictured below). It’s replete with toys and small chairs, so that groups of moms (or dads) can gossip over coffee without their kids being bored and/or running amok. As you may have guessed, Chelsea has two kids herself (aged 2 and 1) and she finds San Francisco lacking in kid-friendly places.

But let’s talk about the most important aspect of a coffehouse: the coffee. As mentioned earlier, they are proudly serving Ritual coffee, as well as De La Paz, both made in an Italian La Marzocco machine and served in classic ACF brown cups. Yes, dear coffee snobs and Tender Readers, with Verve being served at Farm:Table, Sightglass at Hooker’s, and now Ritual and De La Paz at Little Bird, the Tenderloin is truly becoming a new coffee geek haven. Furthermore, Little Bird is planning to expand their coffee menu to include other SF third-wave roasters–or at least a couple more. Coming from Whiskey Thieves, where you can choose from 250 different brands of whiskey, they want to offer coffee lovers a broad range of quality choices. ‘I like the idea of variety’, Dave said. Unfortunately, they don’t have loose leaf tea – just Stash pouches (one can’t have it all).

For the time being, Little Bird is open from 7AM-3PM-ish on weekdays and 8/9AM-3PM-ish on weekends. Dave said this is probably going to change soon, as they’re hoping to start serving late “bar bites” at some point, mainly to the Whiskey Thieves clientele but also to any other hungry drinkers in the area, of which there are many, given that Geary has a pretty solid stretch of good bars on it.

At the moment they’re only serving breakfast stuff, such as cookies, bagels from Holey Bagel in Noe Valley, and the occasional waffles if one happens upon them. But they want to have some lunch options as well soon, revolving around a sandwich focus. They’ve only been open for a week in a soft launch, so they’re still trying to figure things out, playing with some ideas and tweaking their menu according to customers’ preferences. Dave told us they should be having their grand opening party in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned through their twitterfeed. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to give them feedback or suggestions.

We honestly don’t know how Dave manages to work the Thieves bars by night and Little Bird by day. Obviously, the coffee might have something to do with it, but he’s truly passionate about this new endeavor and it shows. When we asked about the origin of the name we discovered another passion of his: rock-climbing. And if you’re wondering about the connection between the two, you’ll have to ask him about it when you check out the place (and you definitely should). We won’t say anymore.

This Little Bird has big plans. Besides expanding their opening hours, their food and coffee menu, they’re also looking to have outdoor seating and free wifi plus the possibility of a bicycle rack may loom in the future as well. And have we mentioned that they have a pink bathroom that is probably the most decadent bathroom in the Loin? Well, they do and it is there for thorough use and enjoyment. The only thing they don’t have is a website (yet), but they do have a Facebook page and Twitter account. So follow them there if you want to learn about upcoming changes, but also get out from your dark apartment and go enjoy one of our great new cafes in the Loin!

Dearest TenderReaders, a couple of weeks ago we shared with you our excitement after finding out about the opening of a new coffee shop in the Loin very aptly named Hooker’s Sweet Treats. Although we’re not really coffee drinkers, we found their chocolate-covered caramels to-die-for (actually to kill for given that you can’t taste anything if you’re dead) which has kept us coming back. And today we were lucky enough to be invited to the grand opening party in a secret courtyard in the back of the building. Okay, it’s not secret, but it’s just not Hooker’s courtyard (unfortunately) so the party had to be somewhat under the radar. Which wasn’t a problem because a) Hooker’s parents had come all the way from Louisiana so everybody behaved really well (no, no spankings for bad behavior you perverts) b) it became so cold after the sun stopped shinning on the yard (how San Francisco) that people didn’t stay late enough to get drunk.

If you still haven’t been to Hooker’s, do it, do it now and see how far a really nice and easy-going graphic designer turned confectioner by by popular acclaim has come in just two scant years. In the meantime, take a look at these pics from the party and be jealous.

Seeing how Farm:Table–our favorite morning spot in the hood–is closed for a couple of days, we decided it was the perfect day to be adventurous and try some of Hooker’s Sweet Treats. Taking over the old Chez Momo space (which I regret to admit we always meant to visit but never did…), this new, cool café opened only two weeks ago in a soft launch that will last for around a month while they tweak their menu according to the customers requests (their grand opening is supposed to be around the 17th).

In spite of the location in the heart of the Tenderloin (not the Tendernob like so many snotty food blogs have insisted on placing it), this café’s namesake has nothing to do with the naughty shenanigans afoot in the adjoining streets otherwise it might have easily been called, “Tranny’s” or “Methy’s”. As it turns out, the owner Dave Williams’ nickname is ‘Hooker’ apparently because he liked to call his buddies ‘hookers’. This doesn’t make a tremendous amount of sense and may just be a Louisiana thing that someone should ask Brenda about. But, seeing how nice and soft-mannered he seemed when we talked to him, I assume that the hooker-calling only comes out after a round or two.

The star item on Hooker’s Sweet Treats menu are the sea-salted chocolate-covered caramels. They’re the reason why many San Franciscans already know Dave Williams, and are now flocking to his new café. Bite-sized and at $2 each they are a bit of a luxurious indulgence (perhaps fare for the first of the month?), but definitely worth the splurge when in need of some glamor amidst the otherwise down-to-earth neighborhood.

In case you’re not one of those in-the-know foodies in San Francisco, this article in SF Weekly explains how graphic designer Dave Williams became a confectioner:

Those caramels ― covered with 72 percent bittersweet chocolate, sprinkled with Welsh sea salt smoked over smoldering oak ― grew out of an off-season craving. Williams loved Trader Joe’s salted chocolate caramels, but they showed up in stores only around the holidays, and this was summer. “I thought, ‘Where am I going to get some of these?’” Williams says. So he made his own, refining the recipe to get it right. This was in 2008, just about the time Williams’ partner Rod Hipskind (along with business partner Kelly Ishikawa) were opening The Perish Trust, the vintage home and collectible shop on Divis.

​”I made a ton of them for the opening party, without any intent to sell them after that,” Williams says. “But everyone that was there fell in love with them, and the big question of the night was how I could make these to sell.” Through word of mouth, Williams ended up selling his caramels at Miette and the fancy boutique Carrots, The Perish Trust and Sightglass, too (Hooker’s candies are no longer available at the first two).

But besides these rightly famous chocolate caramels, Hooker’s most popular treat is Louisiana-style bread pudding. For instance, today’s special was with fresh blueberries, nectarines, bananas and walnuts picked up at yesterday’s Civic Center’s Farmers Market. Although I didn’t get to try it this time, the air of the café was filled with such a pleasant smell of freshly-baked bread pudding that, combined with the smell of hot caramel in a pot that Dave was stirring, is a sure guarantee that I’ll be back mighty soon.

I’m also happy to report that a couple of days ago Dave decided to include a savory option in his sweet menu: biscuits! Today’s special was covered in cheddar (and filled with something that I think were green onions) and was particularly delicious. It’s too bad they don’t serve lunch snacks; at least for the time being…

But what about the beverages? Well, the menu consists mainly of coffee. And coffee-obsessed tenderneighbors will be happy to learn that Hooker’s Sweet Treats serves coffee from Sightglass, a cult coffee roasting company on Seventh and Folsom that has been operating for about a year [side note: Sightglass has also been carrying Verve, the Santa Cruz-based coffee roaster served at Farm:Table]. Hooker’s coffee menu is simple but solid, as proven by the cappuccino I tried, made of the powerful Owl’s Howl blend – perfect for those who like a strong and fully-flavored coffee to kick-off the day in style. Also worth mentioning, they roast their own coffee daily and they sell it for home consumption.

As some tender readers already know, we at Tenderblog are not ashamed to admit that we are more tea than coffee geeks so I naturally asked about their lack of tea offerings in the menu. Apparently tea is going to be in the menu, but for the time being Dave is looking for a tea blender of his taste. I’ll obviously have to come back to find out which one he has picked. Let’s hope it’s loose leaf because damn mother of the virgin almighty these sweets are freakin’ wicked good with a cup of strong loose leaf black tea!

As for the interior design of the space, the overall ambiance is very American classic with vintage furniture and rustic decoration elements. In fact, when I came in “As time goes by” was playing in the background, and jazz music was in the air the whole time I was there. I’m sure you’ll be “surprised” to find out that the main sitting area is … a farm table! complete with mason jars and lavender bouquets. The counter (pictured below) is apparently from an old candy store, with the front decorated with photos from Louisiana taken by Williams’ grandfather. Ironically, these black and white shots feature the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival, happening every year on Labor Day weekend for the last 75 years to “prove that oil and water really do mix”. Apparently, BP was so totally right…

• You can follow Hooker’s Sweet Treats on Twitter

It appears the place to be on a sunny Sunday in Upper Loin is farm:table who, in addition to being a solid anchor point to the block of Post between Leavenworth & Jones, have gotten really popular. Great to see it as they owners are super cool folks and it shows that people are indeed happy to have good spots to go in the Hood for cup.

Seeing as how a “trend” is starting to happen in the Loin of cool, local coffee shops opening up (and by trend, I mean that farm:table came before this) it’s only fitting to see, Jebena open up at 990 Polk between Geary & Myrtle. Unfortunately no site yet and I refuse to link to Yelp as a they are the devil, but here’s Here’s what Tablehopper said:

Received word about a brand-new café called ~JEBENA~, serving coffee from Barefoot and loose-leaf teas, along with savory dishes like panini, soup, and salad. Since owner Kinani Ahmed is Ethiopian, he also plans to offer an Ethiopian coffee ceremony, brewing the coffee in a traditional way (this is coming soon). The Lower Polk location means it’s a good spot before or after a movie at the AMC on Van Ness, doubly so when he opens his gelato/ice cream and crêperie shop in the space flanking the café later this summer.

Haven’t made it by myself yet, but if anyone has, kick in your two cents. I’m always supporting more places brewing loose leaf tea.

We’ve been bad locals. Despite the fact that it’s been open since May 7th and we saw them getting ready to open even before that, we only just got around to checking out farm:table yesterday. This point is made especially bad by the fact that free-ranging eater Tablehopper wrote about it right around opening and a few blogs and websites we follow loved it too. Then a number of coffee blogs picked up on the fact that they serve Verve Coffee Roasters coffee and wrote about the place as well. That left us, living very close to them, not having checked them out. Bad, bad Tenderbloggers…

What have we missed? Well, the same thing that any of you have missed if you haven’t been there, in that this is an extremely cute, intimate spot which any neighborhood must have to give it a sense of permanence and cozyness (their business card says ‘coffee, food, community’). While the place is truly the size of a shoebox it is very tastefully decorated with the one communal table a good sized that can accommodate a number of people, located next to a huge window that when the San Francisco weather decides to be a bit decent is wide open to let the sun in. There are also two little tables outside that are pretty much perfectly positioned as the sun never beats directly down on you while you watch the comings and goings of Post Street at Leavenworth. In fact farm:table is a fantastic anchor to hold down this chunk of Post Street which is a very up-and-coming strip of the TenderNob area which we really love.

And what about the coffee? Solid. Made in famous Italian La Marzocco machines, and served in classic brown ACF cups, we hear that their espresso “delivers a potent, sharp, extremely bright shot” and that “it is not for the meek who like their coffee mellow or with milk” (see full expert rating here). We’re not generally coffee drinkers, as we prefer what many call, “that leafy crap” and others call, “tea”, but we can tell this group knows how to brew up a super proper cup of coffee. Besides, this tiny café is the first in San Francisco to use beans from the micro-roaster Verve. We also love the fact that they call their coffee specialty the “TenderNob” (pictured below). For some San Francisco aficionados, this may seem familiar because as far as we can tell, it’s also called the Gibraltar in Blue Bottle-loving circles, although it may remind the uninitiated like us of a Spanish cortado.

The strength of the coffee should not be surprising as two of the three owners, Kate (pictured below) and Shannon Amitin, were formerly of Blue Bottle Coffee (the third owner is Private chef Catherine Reinfield). As to why they don’t use Blue Bottle beans, Kate told us it was a diplomatic decision, “Well, when you know all the coffee roasters in town, you’re going to upset everyone else if you choose one from in town. That’s why we went out of town”. Verve is based in Santa Cruz and incidentally, we hear, they love jazz.

Ah, but it’s not just coffee. They now have tea as well which is from Teance in Berkeley. Love them or hate them, Teance does have good leaves and while a pot is $5, it’s quite big and they’ll refill it freely. At first they didn’t have tea as they’re trying to live by the motto of “doing fewer things and doing them very well”. They’re coffee people and they didn’t know all the ins and outs of tea-ness, but they were convinced by a friend (we thank you, friend!) and worked with Teance to really get a good understanding of tea, bring seasonal blends since they’re all about seasonal ingredients, and they took the extremely rare step of serving it loose leaf as bags are decidedly ucky. We hear their ice tea is great too.

Naturally, they have house made nibbles to go with your coffee or tea such as the ginger breakfast muffin that we tried and that was quite tasty, or maple cornmeal delight, as well as proper breakfast such as fruit and mascarpone toast. They also a daily soup, a salad and a couple of sandwiches for lunch based on seasonal ingredients. Today, for example, they are serving a bacon, tomato & avocado sandwich, a spicy tuna salad with egg and manzanilla olives, a velvety carrot soup, and a little gem salad with radish & cherry tomatoes. Yesterday they had a tarragon shallot egg salad sandwich, green garlic soup and a cherry tomato salad.

But, they have more than just these things, so if you really want to be on the up and up, check out their Twitter where they kick out the morning and afternoon delicious specialties that they prepare. Screw Ashton Kutcher. That has to be one of the best Twitter accounts in existence and it’s largely undiscovered so you can start following them now. Then you can tell you friends, “Oh, yeah, I was following farm:table since it was all spicy adobo pork sandwich. summer squash and basil soup. sugar snap pea, cucumber & radish salad. raspberry streusel and tarragon shallot egg salad sandwich. curry zucchini soup. green bean feta cucumber salad w mint vinaigrette“. You’ll be so cool.

The owners are incredibly cool (Kate is decorated in tattoos of pregnant women because she used to work as a doula, how cool is that?), easy-going and attentive to detail, and we are so thrilled to have this as part of the neighborhood. In fact they told us that they’ll soon be living within walking distance of the cafe, so they’ll be the über local we all wish we could be. Oh, in case you’re wondering what was there before, it was Cafe Momus which, having walked past it countless times we can’t remember it for the life of us. It’s probably safe to say that farm:table is an upgrade.

Their hours are still flexing around as they’re quite new, but currently, it’s Tuesday-Sunday from 9-4. We’re told that they’ll probably be open on Mondays as well in the near future.

Sugar Café, on Sutter between Taylor and Mason, is one of our favorite daytime cafés in the Tendernob (although we liked it better when they had those big comfy leather couches by the window). And we’re saying daytime because in the evening it transitions to a lounge bar with blue lights that is open until 2am that we don’t like as much.

Sugar Café is a great place to meet up with people for coffee, for a drink or to eat something. They serve coffee and teas all day long, including the very fancy pyramidal Tea Forté, and alcoholic drinks starting at noon (wine and beer), even cocktails from 5pm on. They also serve food all day, with the usual muffins and brownies in the morning, and nice salads and fancy salads for lunch. In the evening, they serve what they call Bar bites, which means stuff nachos, dips, olives and cheeses. Oh, and although we’ve never tried it, their dessert menu sounds delicious.

Although their website doesn’t mention it, we’ve come across this sign in front of Sugar Café announcing weekend brunches with crêpes, mimosas, bloody marys and sangria. Since we don’t know of any crêpe places around the neighborhood (except for The Crepe House on Polk and Sacramento, which definitely doesn’t qualify as the Tendernob anymore), we can’t hide our excitement. We’ll report back once we’ve tried them.

Café Royale is probably our favorite evening hangout spot in the Tendernob, at the corner of Post and Leavenworth. It’s an odd combination of mellow daytime coffeeshop with free wifi, and quiet night bar with candles on the tables serving a few beers on tap, sake & soju cocktails, and cheap wines by the glass (their house wine is usually $5). They even have a pool table!

Their website says they’re open from 10 am while the sign on the door says 7am, but since we’re never up so early we don’t know when they actually open. We do know when they close though: at 2am on Fridays and Saturdays and at 11 or midnight the rest of the week, depending on how big the crowd is (usually not big).

They also have monthly mini-art exhibits on their wall, and events that are usually free, such as live music, book readings or stand up comedy performances. Our favorite is their regular Jazz Sundays.

For once, we have to agree with a reviewer on Yelp named John H who says:

A trustworthy selection of coffee, beer and wine. A functional art gallery that features work by local artists (more hits than misses). Loads of natural light during the day and a comfy setting in the evening. The second floor seating is always nice, if not a bit warm on those odd hot days, but offers a great perspective of goings-on below.
Free music. There is no other local venue in close proximity to Union Square/Tenderloin/Nob Hill/Polk Street that offers such a thing on a regular basis. And featuring music that doesn’t always have a commercial zeal – a further unique element to the programming at Cafe Royale.
So as the city’s event spaces, cafes and bars continue their sad permutation into a shallow reflection of commercial and Manhattan-style successes, I am happy to have Cafe Royale around for the occasional drink and reminder of what a neighborhood spot is all about.

They have a happy hour (that they call “pretty glad hour”) daily from 4 to 7 offering a $1 off all their alcoholic drinks, and every first Thursday of the month after 8 they have an opening reception for the art show of the month. The next one is this coming Thursday for Oakland-based artist Teppei Ando’s portrait series Blowing It

Also, tonight at 7 there’s free live music by Uni and her Ukelele, Tippy Canoe, Meredith Axlerod & Amber Lee All-acoustic-grrrls.

You can check the program for the rest of the month on their website, which includes two jazz bands next Sunday at 2pm and at 6pm, and a book reading at 8:30pm by authors Reenita Malhotra, Samantha Waltz and Teresa Coates.

Check it out!