A new coffee craze brewing in San Francisco: the Snowy Plover
Image: Christopher Michel/Flickr
San Franciscans love their coffee. Its not just the so-called third-wave roasters and cafes that have sprung up in recent years.
The west coast's first espresso coffeehouse, Caffe Trieste has served strong shots with a side of live music and entertainment for the past half-century.
But a cold brew out near the ocean has made the biggest splash in the past few months. You don't have to know much about single-origin beans or pour-over techniques.
You need only have an adventurous attitude.
In the Outer Sunset neighborhood, a few blocks from the Pacific at Andytown, a celebrated San Francisco roaster and coffeehouse with minimalist pastel décor, has cultivated a fiendish following.
Standing a dozen deep in line, the worth-the-wait indulgence is an iced concoction that contains two espresso shots, sparkling water, and a splash of brown sugar syrup, topped with a dollop of unusually dense whipped cream.
This is the snowy plover.
It's the cafe's specialty, named after a Western bird that winters along protected stretches of the city shoreline. Only about 2,100 of the six-inch-tall white-breasted shorebirds remain in the wild.
The smooth espresso, made from beans roasted in-house, blends perfectly with the bubbly water and thick cream.
It's not wholly original to compare my frothy drink to a coffee float or espresso-laced egg cream, as some call it.
Andytown co-owner Michael McCrory came up with the fizzy cup of joe as an alternative to the imported Italian Bibi Caffe coffee soda—a sober Guinness, been known to call it.
To be fair, other carbonated coffees exist in San Francisco. At Saint Frank in Russian Hill, the popular Kaffe Tonic is a similar sparkling water and espresso concoction.
But Andytown beats on price and atmosphere - not to mention that whole Pacific Ocean and cute shorebird thing a few blocks down.
Pair your Snowy Plover with one of Andytown's cheddar herb scones, and you have a perfect treat to take down to the water for a perfect view.
Andytown Coffee Roasters, 3655 Lawton Street, San Francisco, six blocks from Ocean Beach at Lawton and 43rd Streets.
