Saint Frank’s original café sits at 2340 Polk Street in Russian Hill, between Green and Union. The business has grown to three San Francisco cafés and another in Menlo Park, but this is where it began in 2013. Own-roasted coffee is the draw, served in a tall, narrow room of white walls and pale oak. The long white bar, where you place your order, gives the space a clear centre of gravity.
The architecture makes a quietly interesting choice: espresso machinery was recessed into the bar to reduce the physical barrier between the person making the coffee and the person ordering it. The equipment takes a lower profile by design. Diagonal white-oak surfaces add movement to the otherwise spare room.
Saint Frank’s sourcing centres on continuing relationships with small producers. Its relationship with Guatemalan producer Eduardo ‘Guayo’ Gomez predates the café itself: the coffees may change with the seasons, but the connections run longer. There is care at the roastery, too, where the components of its Little Brother espresso blend are roasted separately to align their extraction. At Polk, the choice runs from espresso drinks to pour-over, with house-made almond-macadamia milk bringing a distinctive touch to a milk-coffee order. There is plenty here for someone interested in the beans, without requiring every visit to become a study session.
Pastries accompany the coffee. The room’s composure does not guarantee an empty chair: queues recur, and a table can be hard to secure. Come for a pour-over or an almond-macadamia milk coffee, with a little flexibility about sitting down. The room invites a pause; the available chairs have the final say.