Coffee to the People in San Francisco, California: A Review

I decided to check out Coffee To The People after seeing them mentioned in the latest Best Of The Bay List from the Guardian or the Weekly or whichever of those papers keeps spitting these things out. Anyway, Coffee To The People won the vaunted "Best Place To Surf Porn In Public" award from this prestigious institution, for having a bunch of seats facing the wall so people can't peep over your shoulder. While I'm not much for surfing porn in public, the idea of actually having a place to work on WiFi without any worries about creepy peepers or hacker wannabes did sound appealing. So I went over to check it out.

So ... Coffee To The People states that they were " ... founded to bring high quality fair trade organic coffees and teas (not free porn) to the neighborhood." Among their philosophies they state that they want to bring you "coffee with a conscience", "make the world a better place", and "treat their baristas with the respect they deserve." They certainly talk the right game, and the ambience of the place captures the whole ex-hippie modern progressive mind meld thing that San Franciscans tend to enjoy. I honestly don't know whether it is just cynical marketing or real spirit, but it works out all to the good for the most part. The vibe of the place is mellow and not pushy or full of attitude.

Coffees served are all billed as organic and fair trade. A pound of take-home runs about fourteen bucks for any variety, which is pretty much comparable to Starbucks prices. Choices include Rebel Roast (a blend of Nicaraguan, Ethiopian and Sumerian), Bohemian Decaf (Central American and Sumatran), La Resistance French Roast (Indonesian, Guatemalan and Colombian), Beatnik Espresso (Brazillian and numerous South American), the Peace and Love Alliance (Ethiopian and Indian with fruit spice and chocolate), Grassroots Roast (Nicaraguan with herbs), and Global Karma (highly mixed.)

The coffee is pretty solid and the prices are OK for San Francisco standards. There's also plenty of seating, outlets and the WiFi is fairly fast and reliable. If you're looking for a place to buckle down and get a couple hours of schoolwork or online office work done (or maybe just peck away at a book), this is definitely a good choice. This is overall one of the better coffee shops in the city to hang around in, whether it's for laptop work, reading, just chatting with folks or privacy for your pron surfing. Definitely give it a look when you are around the Haight. Hours of business are from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 7 to 9 on Saturday and Sunday.

Coffee To The People
1206 Masonic Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94117
# 415-626-4235
http://www.coffeetothepeople.com/