blue bottle coffee south park san francisco cafe sprudge

Toย Arion Paylo, Blue Bottleโ€™s director of design and development, the company’s new cafe in San Francisco’s South Park neighborhoodย is a standout. โ€œItโ€™s a beautiful building,โ€ heย says, โ€œthat we donโ€™t really have to mess with that much. Thereโ€™s a lot of texture and history, and it gives us the chance to really let the building shine.โ€

blue bottle coffee south park san francisco cafe sprudge

When looking at any new potential Blue Bottle space, Paylo saysย his team focuses on three main things: what the space offers, what needs to be taken away, and what they can add to define it as a Blue Bottle experience. As Paylo says, โ€œWe donโ€™t have a book of prescribed design for every shop. Itโ€™s more about: What is this space telling us? What can we do with this?โ€ The answers are, invariably, different every time. โ€œWe get to look at these spaces uniquely,โ€ he says, โ€œand react to them. Itโ€™s the fun side of itโ€”we have an opportunity to do something new and special that resonates with customers.โ€ย 

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blue bottle coffee south park san francisco cafe sprudge

For theย South Park cafe, Paylo worked with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architectsโ€”the minds behind the Emeryville Pixar campus, to name just one โ€”ย to highlight the existing structure, the goal being to leave the original space as โ€œuntouched as possible.โ€ The coffee bar sports minimalist touchesโ€”including an undercounter Mavam Espresso machine and Blue Bottle drippersโ€”all beneath soaring, enormous exposed beams, their surfaces rough and pitted. Paylo believes they were chopped from the masts of decommissioned ships. โ€œThe building itself gives all the texture to us,โ€ heย says. โ€œWe didnโ€™t have to do a heck of a lot to express what we love about design while still retaining a warmth and humanity in the space.โ€

blue bottle coffee south park san francisco cafe sprudge

blue bottle coffee south park san francisco cafe sprudge

Blue Bottle South Parkโ€™s most interesting feature is the Cold Bar, anย upscale take on iced coffee cocktails. James Freeman, the companyโ€™s founder, offers a simple explanation for the concept: โ€œItโ€™s a fun thing to do. Thereโ€™s nothing wrong with that.โ€ Blue Bottle employees from around the world submitted recipes, which were prepared and sampled in hourslong tasting sessions. One even called for ice cream made from scratch from an employeeโ€™s own recipe. โ€œIt was,โ€ Freeman says, โ€œa monumental success.โ€ While Freeman recognizes that die-hard coffee purists might balk at the Cold Bar, he’s not bothered. โ€œObviously, a shakerato is not exactly the purest expression of coffee. Itโ€™s fun and itโ€™s accessible, and the integrity comes in examining the ingredients, making something really interesting.โ€

blue bottle coffee south park san francisco cafe sprudge

Which speaks to the Blue Bottle philosophy as a whole: to continue to innovate and expand while maintaining a level of qualityย in everything, from building out a new space or debuting an iced coffee beverage program. As Freeman says, โ€œIf we were really dour and overly focused on [someone else’s]ย notion of integrity, we wouldnโ€™t even make lattes. We would not be the kind of company we are today.โ€

Blue Bottle Coffee South Park is located at 2 South Park, San Francisco. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Noah Sandersย (@sandersnoah) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in San Francisco, and a contributor to SF Weekly, Side One Track One, andย The Bold Italic. Read moreย Noah Sanders on Sprudge.

Photos courtesy ofย Ryley Johnson.

Blue Bottle Coffee is an advertising partner on Sprudge Media Network.
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