FourBarrel Cafe

Oh San Francisco, my love, my admiration, my hear and soul, you embrace and welcome me into your arms and give me peace. You provide luxury and endless adventures that I am willing to jump to, I visit you as much as I can and every moment I spend with you I imprint in my brain. Needless to say you hold one of the top cafes in the nation, FourBarrel Cafe, a list was released some years ago by the New York Times and this cafe could not be missed.  After getting lost on the way and making turn after turn looking for parking space, I finally made it. When I walked in, I felt I entered a warehouse; the building smelled of freshly grounded coffee beans and there were a lot of people in line waiting for their orders and I said, "Yup, definitely not a Starbucks.." And that was the beauty of it, this coffee shop held coffee from all over the world; Africa, Middle East, Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala.I was in the middle of the globe smelling the beans from different places, it was extraordinary. First of all, I have never gone on a mission to hunt down a coffee shop I read on Yahoo news by the NYT's. Second, I became obsessed with the search to taste anything from this shop and document this all. As I was waiting for a Cappuccino to be made, I observed the methods in which the workers were preparing everything. Old machines, factory like setting and fast pacing movements, a Willy Wonka Chocolate factory for coffee as it seems and I was impressed by how busy the shop was. The intriguing thing about this shop was that there were no outlets, nothing to plug in your laptop or anything, the tables and chairs were all wooden carved and there were dim lights. That was the beauty of, it wasn't a busy shop to go online or charge anything, it was a shop to relax, converse with friends or loved ones and simply forget a busy schedule and actually speak to someone face to face and be assertive. I saw people laughing and conversing, eaves dropping I heard a couple discuss their honeymoon and how they want to repeat it. And then it struck me, people today are loosing that communication skills and are more concerned with their updates online. I look to my right and I see the Pour-over method, which is the freshest way, provided on the side of the store and there was a long line for that. Pour-over is when the filter of the beans is placed over the cup and hot water is slowly poured, letting the grinds soak in and drop the liquid into the cup. It is the freshest way in my opinion to enjoy. Fairly reasonable price too, I paid a dollar less than in I would in Starbucks and the size was relatively the same. So here was my momentum of traveling to my homeland and know that I have rewards waiting for me to sit on the table, forget my laptop, and enjoy a pour-over. :)