I guess it’s time for a true confession. I’m a coffee snob. And when I travel, I have a passion for supporting local roasters and coffee houses. Let’s just say I’ve BEAN Around the World and I’m feeling like now is the time to start sharing the love… and caffeine, one city at a time. You may recall that I started this series with San Francisco – Part 1. If you haven’t already read it, please do before reading this article. It will give you background and a review of the first three coffee roasters I sampled. So let’s open the TWG cafe society doors and talk coffee. Here are the next three coffee places in San Francisco I visited.

Verve is the new kid on the block. I say “on the block” because in fact, they’ve been down in the Santa Cruz area since 2007 (the owner is from Chico and a surfer dude, so he chose Santa Cruz to open his shops) but only opened a cafe on the corner of Church and Market in mid-February of 2017. Stewart, the wonderfully friendly and informative assistant manager, sat with me for a good while and we had a fun chat. He told me that Verve had actually been looking for a space in San Francisco for some time. They wanted a space with a lot of natural light, and while they had this San Francisco space for two years, due to all the rules and regulations in city coding, it took them two years to build out the space and open their doors. Stewart said, “You can’t really be a big dog on the Northern Californian coffee scene without a shop in San Francisco!”

The space is very thoughtfully designed, very modern, lots of natural light, and has a few different seating options. The tables were big and would be good for working. All their beans are roasted in Santa Cruz and they use Colombian and Honduran beans. Pour over coffee is actually their biggest seller and cappuccino the second most requested beverage. And of course like all the other roasters, they are heavily focused on their wholesale bean business.

Verve Menu Board

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