The Richfield doesnโt seem like it should be a coffee shop, and it doesn’t look like one.ย Instead, it comesย across as more of a…Cubist mushroom, as opposed to a place you might imagine food and beverage emanating from. Itโs tiny, a handful of tables pushed in against a pencil-thin kitchen and coffee area. Andย what’s more,ย the Richfield is a solid distance fromย what you might refer to as โoff the beaten pathโ; itโs in the Inner Richmond, but not on Irving or even off Irving, or Clement or any of the main streetsโbut rather on a concrete island between the bustle of Geary and California Street.
Even when Eugene Kim, owner of Snowbird Coffee, first threw open the doors, customers would drop in and wish him good luck on staying open. Previous tenantsโa Hello-Kitty-themed cafe, at some point a gas stationโhadnโt done so well in theย sliver of a space, but Kim had high hopes for what he thought of as an underdog. The name, The Richfield, is a nod to Sylvester Stalloneโs inspiration for Rocky, a fight between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, where, for one small moment, Wepner knocked Ali to the mat.
“For that brief moment, a nobody was on top of the world,โ Kim says, and because the fight took place at the Richfield Coliseum, he thought the name fit his space. โItโs our nod to the underdogs,โ he says, โthe believers.โ
On one wall, the phrase, and the shopโs philosophy, has been painted: โnever surrender if you want to be a contenderโ complementing the scattering of boxing memorabiliaโa pair of jump ropes here, boxing gloves thereโthat helps to define the space. Like Kimโs Snowbird cafe, the space is meant to be a community gathering spot, and when I was there, dogs and kids tore around through the legs of their parents, while others read or worked on their computers. The Richfield offers a smallโbut deliciousโfood program. Kim roasts his own beans under the Snowbird Coffee moniker, and does them up with a two-group La Marzocco Linea Classic EE, Bee House ceramic cones, and a Mazzer grinder.
We sat down with Eugene Kim to talk about opening two cafes in a year, the most unusualย thing heโs seen at the cafe, his food program, and more.
How did you end up opening two coffee shops so quickly?
We really had no intentions of opening a new location so soon, but just like Snowbird, the opportunity kind of organically presented itself. If youโre a business owner in San Francisco, you know how difficult it is to find a good deal on a location. So when you see a good deal, you hop on it.
Tell us a little bit about the food program.
A student from San Francisco State [Jeremy Balagey] started coming by to see if he could interview us. I guess he showed up one morning and told our employees to let us know that the interview was online. I came in later that day and one of our guys told us that heโd come by and left some cookies. I took a bite of the cookie, and I was blown away. I was extremely blunt with him, I felt like the interview video was pretty bad…but the cookie was quite possibly the best cookie I had ever tasted. Coming from a background in the creative arts, I know how difficult it is to prove to someone you could do the one thing that you want to do in life, when you donโt have much to show for it. I went out on a whim and asked him if he would be interested in handling the food at our new cafe. I remember him saying that he just knew that he could do it. I knew by the look in his eyes and the tone in his voice that he was serious about it. I took a gamble on someone that was super passionate about cooking, and itโs been great so far.
How is it operating in this part of the Inner Richmond?
I think the most difficult part is that our space is on an island. Itโs cool because we donโt share walls with anyone else, but we also donโt have any other businesses on either side of us to drive foot traffic. Itโs pretty difficult, but once we made our presence known in the neighborhood, the word slowly started spreading. Weโre at a good place now, and itโs cool because about 80% of our customers are regulars from the neighborhood.
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.