Finally! Four Barrel Coffee is open and ready for business.
With the motorcycles and the cardboard boxes removed we have to say that Four Barrel cleans up nice. There’s a starkness to the décor—exposed pipes, absence of all things plush, soft or comfy—but the warm yellow wood of the exposed beams, counter and tables keep the steel and boar heads from harshing the mellow.
But enough about the space, let’s talk about the coffee.
Bright, bold, flavorful—this is coffee-lovers coffee. We’ve been battling caffeine headaches so we don’t think we’ll be able to frequent Four Barrel, but we do know where to go when we’re not messin’ around with the java.
We had the iced coffee (tasted a lot like the New Orleans iced coffee at Blue Bottle) and Sweetie had an expertly crafted cappuccino. Everything met our expectations—maybe even surpassed them a little. We know that’s hard to fathom because how does a café go about exceeding expectations in the wake of power coffee houses like Blue Bottle and Ritual? But trust us, Four Barrel is raising the bar.
They have a simple menu of staple coffee and espresso drinks and this morning they had lovely looking pies from Baking Pies and Taking Names (the Raspberry Ginger looked mythical). Dynamo Donuts were on the way, but we didn’t stay long enough to catch them.
We were thinking that location might be an issue, with Four Barrel a bit far from heavy foot traffic. But at 8:45 this morning the place was bustling, and life East of 16th Street is starting to pick up on Valencia—Little Star Pizza has held down the opposite corner for years. We suspect that gentrification’s long-reaching stretch will soon make it up to Market Street before long and Four Barrel is now there to help.
Four Barrel Coffee [Yelp]
Dynamo Donuts [MenuPages]
Little Star Pizza [MenuPages]
Little Star Pizza [Official Site]
[Photo via Alexis Wright]
