Hittin' the Bar Early

If I wasn't talking about the Coffee Bar in San Francisco then I would hope you would all be worried about me. But since I am, sit back and enjoy my little review.

Josh and I were fortunate enough to head up to San Francisco a couple weeks ago for a quick one day trip. When I say fortunate I mean that we were blessed to be in the city we love, to meet with friends we love and to have good coffee and great pastries, which I love. In no way do I include the insane 8 hours of driving we did in a two day period, which was actually quite unfortunate. 

Before we completed the latter half of our 8 hour driving excursion, we met up with our friends Chris and Christine at the Coffee Bar, a new coffee shop/cafe in the outer Mission. We met for breakfast, but the also serve lunch and on Thursday and Friday night's dinner thanks to Radio Africa & Kitchen.

But back to the breakfast! Coffee Bar serves everything from big bowls of Irish Oatmeal to Dynamo Donuts, but what struck me most was that they served pastries from bakeries in SF I have never heard of! How dare I! I guess I have been out of the city too long. I ordered a dirt bomb cinamon-sugar donut muffin from Jasmine Rae Bakery and a brown-butter hazlenut financier with berries from Patisserie Philippe. 

Both were fantastic! The donut-muffin (could there be a better hybrid?) was moist, like a muffin, yet dense, like a cake donut, and rang clear with the delicious flavors of cinnamon and sugar and the financier was delicate yet challenged my palate with the complex tones of brown butter and hazelnut. I was VERY pleased. 

They also serve Mr. Espresso coffee, which personally I love for it's simplistic taste that reminds me so much of the coffee I had in Italy. It also serves as a great way to wash down your yummy treats :)

In addition to great baked goods, one of my favorite things about the institution was all the natural light that flooded through the huge windows. It makes for such a lovely atmosphere to read and have breakfast on a saturday morning. Not to mention, free wi-fi!

So if you enjoy great pastries, simple but good coffee and sunshiney days go check out the Coffee Bar. And while your there, try some other pastries and let me know what's good.