January 03, 2008 Ritual Coffee Roasters, I made it!

02:48pm by Lijen (Team)

Since working from home everyday takes its toll on the mind and body, I try to get out as much as I can. Sanity requires it of me. So the way it works is that I have 3 or 4 cafés that I frequent. The comfortable and familiar Starbucks down the street from my apartment; the small, yet cozy Tully’s right across the street in the Embarcadero Center; the homey Café Trieste in North Beach; and the chill Rockin’ Java up in the Haight are all favorites of mine.

In the past few months, however, I started hearing faint whispers of a little place called Ritual Coffee Roasters in The Mission. I duno, something about it being the most happening and hip café around? I didn’t know such a title existed, so I had to check it out for myself. Attempt 1 was over a month and a half ago on Veterans Day. Bad idea. Apparently the city of San Francisco likes to salute our veterans over cups of coffee. The line was out the door (we’re at a coffee shop mind you), which is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen. This was obviously my first time here, as it was more or less an average day for the Ritual. That day, and on two other subsequent attempts, I was turned away due to an overly extended line. Ritual was an exclusive club that I was not invited to. Funny, you would think that my iPhone would’ve been the secret password that would unlock the door to this hipster paradise. I mean, don’t they have an iPhone Owners Only section somewhere in the back or something?

Well, I guess today was my lucky day. Maybe it was the blessed rain that scared all of the little kiddies away. Either way, I’m here; I made it. Woohoo! And as I sit here writing this blog entry to the romantic soundtrack of some random guy quietly strumming a Spanish guitar on the couch next to me, I realize I don’t know s*@t about coffee cause this cup tastes the same to me as every other cup I’ve had on any other given day. Ok, back to work…