Cafeography
San Francisco

Specialty coffee in San Francisco

Valencia Street roasters, SoMa espresso bars and Andytown’s Snowy Plover in the Outer Sunset.

Photo: Chevanon Photography, Pexels License

The coffee term “third wave” is credited to Trish Rothgeb, who coined it in 2002. She founded Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters in San Francisco in 2011; the company came through the pandemic with a single café on Union Street in Cow Hollow, at number 2271, and in September 2026 was preparing a second at 1700 20th Street on Potrero Hill.1

Much of the rest started in the Mission. Ritual Coffee Roasters was founded in 2005 by Eileen Hassi Rinaldi and is counted among the third-wave companies that roast their own beans, sell wholesale and run cafés.2 Four Barrel Coffee followed in 2008, started by one of Ritual’s founders.3 SoMa and the Castro now have the most specialty bars.

Local tip: Graffeo on Columbus Avenue sells roasted beans but no brewed coffee, so pair a bag from there with an espresso at Home Coffee Roasters on Grant Avenue, open weekdays until 16:00.5

Where these cafés are: SoMa & Mission Bay (3), Castro & Noe Valley (3), Mission District (2), Nob Hill & Russian Hill (2), Hayes Valley & Civic Center (2), Financial District & Embarcadero (2), Marina, Cow Hollow & Pacific Heights (2), North Beach & Chinatown (1), Haight-Ashbury & Cole Valley (1), Richmond District (1), NoPa, Western Addition & Japantown (1), Fisherman's Wharf (1), Union Square & Tenderloin (1), Sunset District (1), Potrero Hill & Dogpatch (1).

At a glance

24Cafés listed
13With opening hours
06:30Earliest opening
18:00Latest closing
  • Opens earliest: Crostini & Java, from 06:30 (Mon–Fri 06:30–15:00 · Sat–Sun 07:30–15:00).
  • Closes latest: Q Specialty Coffee, until 18:00 (Mon–Fri 07:00–17:30 · Sat–Sun 07:00–18:00).
  • Most common features: wheelchair access (17%), wi-fi (13%), takeaway (13%).

Nothing matches those filters here. See all cafés in San Francisco.

Valencia Street and the Mission roasters

Four Barrel pours at 375 Valencia Street, with outdoor seats, and Sextant Coffee Roasters has a café at 539 Valencia.

One block east of Valencia, Abanico Coffee Roasters at 2121 Mission Street opens 07:30–16:00 on weekdays and from 08:00 at weekends. In Hayes Valley, Limoncello at 52 Grove Street pours specialty coffee 08:00–18:00, Monday to Saturday.

SoMa, downtown and North Beach

In SoMa, Sextant Coffee Roasters at 1415 Folsom Street opens weekdays 08:00–16:00 and Saturdays from 09:00. Estas Manos Coffee Roasters at 425 Mission Street serves weekdays 07:00–15:00 and closes at weekends. SIGNAL Coffee Roasters has a counter in the Ferry Building and a café at 2701 Leavenworth Street, open daily 07:00–18:00.

North Beach holds the oldest name. Graffeo Coffee has roasted at 735 Columbus Avenue since 1935, when Giovanni Graffeo began selling beans from a small grocery; it roasts on a custom fluid-bed Sivetz machine but, as of November 2025, served no brewed coffee.5 Home Coffee Roasters at 455 Grant Avenue pours weekdays 07:30–16:00.

Andytown and the Outer Sunset

Andytown Coffee Roasters opened in the Sunset in March 2014.4 Its signature Snowy Plover is fresh espresso with brown sugar syrup and iced sparkling water, topped with a dollop of whipped cream.4

Elsewhere on the west side, Home Coffee Roasters has a café at 1222 Noriega Street, and Q Specialty Coffee at 3490 California Street in the Richmond opens at 07:00 daily and closes at 18:00 on weekends.

What San Francisco pays and orders

Coffee costs more here than in most of the United States. In August 2025, Toast’s point-of-sale data put San Francisco’s median price for a regular hot coffee at US$4.92, second only to Los Angeles among the cities in the report and well above the national median of US$3.52.6

Lattes lead the order. They made up 51% of coffee orders at San Francisco coffee shops and bakeries in May 2025, after latte orders rose 21% from January; matcha went from 14% to 18% of latte orders over the same months, and oat milk went into 41.75% of lattes.7 Most specialty bars with posted hours have closed by 18:00.

Sources

  1. The woman who coined “third wave” coffee is opening a new café and roastery, The San Francisco Standard (Paolo Bicchieri, September 24, 2026), accessed October 2026
  2. Ritual Coffee Roasters, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
  3. Four Barrel Coffee, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
  4. Plover Love: An Ode to Andytown’s Classic Coffee Soda, Fresh Cup (Regan Crisp, updated February 16, 2023), accessed October 2026
  5. San Francisco Roasting Institution Graffeo Coffee Enters New Era, Daily Coffee News (Daria Toptygina, November 5, 2025), accessed October 2026
  6. Report: U.S. Coffee Shop Coffee Prices Are Rising, Daily Coffee News (September 29, 2025), accessed October 2026
  7. Latte Orders Are Up 21%: Square Data Reveals San Francisco Spending Habits, Square (Natalie Zunker, July 14, 2025), accessed October 2026
Keep exploring

Other ways to browse San Francisco

Outdoor seating

92 cafés

Wi-Fi

72 cafés

Bakery cafés

40 cafés

Open by 6am

20 cafés

Open late

26 cafés

By area: North Beach & Chinatown Financial District & Embarcadero Union Square & Tenderloin Hayes Valley & Civic Center SoMa & Mission Bay Mission District Haight-Ashbury & Cole Valley Sunset District

FAQ

Specialty coffee in San Francisco: questions

Who coined the term third-wave coffee, and where is her San Francisco café?

Trish Rothgeb, credited with coining “third wave” in 2002, founded Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters in San Francisco in 2011. Its café is at 2271 Union Street in Cow Hollow, and in September 2026 the company was preparing a second café at 1700 20th Street on Potrero Hill.

How much does a cup of coffee cost at San Francisco specialty coffee shops?

In August 2025, Toast’s point-of-sale data put the median price of a regular hot coffee in San Francisco at US$4.92, second only to Los Angeles and well above the national median of US$3.52. Lattes are the usual order: they made up 51% of coffee orders in May 2025, and oat milk went into 41.75% of them.

Where are the specialty coffee roasters in San Francisco?

SoMa ties with the Castro for the most specialty bars; SoMa's include Sextant Coffee Roasters on Folsom Street and Estas Manos on Mission Street. Four Barrel is on Valencia Street in the Mission, Abanico Coffee Roasters is on Mission Street, Home Coffee Roasters has a café on Noriega Street in the Sunset, and Graffeo has roasted on Columbus Avenue in North Beach since 1935.

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