The Coffee Movement in the City of Coffee

San Francisco CA

San Francisco and Coffee always go hand in hand. The city’s role has been significant in the industry in the few decades. In this city seemingly inundated with coffee shops, where coffee is big business, a small, neighbourhood-based, owner-operated shop continues to make new waves.

Presenting ‘The Coffee Movement’ for you!

The Coffee Movement literally started as a mobile catering and pop-up concept about ten years ago before opening their small & elegant 300 sq.ft hole-in-the-wall café in the historic San Francisco‘s Chinatown.  It is an intimate, outdoor seating only space located on a historic street - right next to one of San Francisco's famous cable car lines, with trollies full of tourists rumbling by every 10minutes.

Back in 2014, Co-Founder Bryan Overstreet had an idea while working at a small café in the northern beaches of Sydney. He realized that the immersive culture around coffee in Australia stood in stark contrast to the transactional nature of American cafés. The communal vibe and celebratory nature of coffee culture Down Under was something Bryan longed to bring back to the States. So, he did.

Bryan and his other Co-Founder Reef Bessette met each other when the two crossed paths at The Mill, where Bryan worked as a barista and Reef had a brief stint in QC. They hit it off as friends and stayed in touch when Reef went to Saint Frank Coffee, where worked as a barista, trainer, and in QC and built his base as a barista competitor. He’s competed previously in both United States Barista Competitions and Coffee Masters, and still does under The Coffee Movement flag, most recently taking second place at the 2022 New York Coffee Festival. He is again one of the Finalists in the US Coffee Barista Championship this year. Bryan too upped his game in the coffee competition circuit. In his first year competing in 2022, he placed fifth at the United States Barista Championship.

The relationship with Saint Frank is still close—Reef uses their coffees in competition and as The Coffee Movement’s house blend, a blend of natural and washed coffees that they serve as both espresso and filter. As a multi roaster, they serve both domestic and international roasters, rotating every week. Currently, they serve their popular House blend |Honduras from Saint Frank; Regalia| Ethiopia from Reko Cooperative and Black & White| Colombia from Milton Monroy.

There are three choices at any one time, available through an extremely concise espresso-based menu, along with filter (hot or cold). There’s a range of signature and seasonal drinks, although best of all is the tasting flight, where you can try all three coffees (pour over filter) or one coffee as espresso, piccolo and filter.

In addition to a Modbar-based espresso bar, where customers order with their barista and are moved sequentially assembly-line style from right to left to the register as their drink is made, the coffee program here is based around batch brew. Borrowing the same system Reef tested out at Saint Frank, The Coffee Movement offers multiple single origin filter coffees on batch brew at a time, which is enabled by their use of glass insulated Zojirushi canisters, which they brew into directly.

Café Design:

Bryan’s Aussie values and personality is reflected in the cafe design show casing an inviting, warm, and approachable environment that prioritizes human connections. There’s no wall of espresso machines and pastry cases between the barista and the customer here, but instead an uncluttered area for meaningful personal interactions, where the barista can “spread happiness through coffee.”

The design of the space is minimal but engaging, and the details are soft and purposeful. The walls are finished with a soft whitewash, showing the unique hand of the person who installed them; they turn upward gracefully to the ceiling as if forming an embrace. The bar is a nude terra cotta tile that connotes a humble, raw elegance. Simple shelves hold plants, hand-thrown mugs, and packages of select beans. Copies of the daily newspaper hang from the counter, above which a curated selection of publications on coffee rests, awaiting perusal.

Custom wooden bar-height tabletops feature inlays of corten steel and sit under handcrafted alabaster sconces – a perfect place to perch and watch cable cars whistle by. Benches out front capture the morning sun.

The space, bespoke and decidedly local, is every inch an extension of Bryan, and the relationship he wanted to build with the neighbourhood. And the soft palette is meant to encourage more important things to shine – conversation, meaningful interaction, and connections. Perhaps not so surprisingly, this café has already become a meaningful part of the community and a destination all its own.

The Coffee: from Prodigal Coffee Roasters, Colorado

Coffee Farm: Luis Guzman, Colombia

This lovely washed caturra was grown by Luiz Guzman, who began working his land 8 years ago. The cherry is floated for an open-air wash, then depulped, leaving mucilage intact for an 80-hour fermentation. Luis has 11,000 coffee shrubs on his 1700 meter high farm and utilizes numerous processing techniques.

·       Process: Washed

·       Region: Nariño, Colombia

·       Variety: Caturra

·       Tasting notes : Orange, Peach, Bright