The upcoming August edition of San Francisco Magazine offers an interesting long read on Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters co-founder and outspoken coffee Twitterer Nick Cho (and features the above incredible photograph). Choโa specialty coffee industry veteran whose social media presence is the spicy stuff of legendโpulls no punches in this well-rounded portrait from reporter Luke Tsai.ย Comparing cold brew to โgetting kicked in the balls?โ Check. โUltra-light-roasted beansโ akin to toxic masculinity? You betcha. The whole thing is strongly worth your reading time. In a world where mainstream coffee reporting still veers perilously close to the “duh duh” variety, Tsai’s feature stands out. We think it’s an early frontrunner for a 2017 Sprudgie Award nomination for coffee writing.
And within the article there’s a bit of news: Wrecking Ball Coffee, which Cho co-owns with partner Trish Rothgeb, are working on a new project in San Franciscoโs Mission District. It’s going in to the Redlick Building, on the corner of Mission and 17th. With โthe neighborhoodโs already rampant gentrification,โ this was a part of town Cho never planned on opening a coffee shop. But when the opportunity arose to do so with the landlord covering โall of the build-out expenses,โ it was too good to pass up.
The cafe project is still in early stages, as per the article, but Cho and Rothgeb are theming it around a thought-provoking hook: this is to be an โanti-gentrification cafe.โ Here’s more from the article:
The answer, at least in part, includes bi-lingual menus and staff, street-level menus, using Latino-owned Mission-based bakeries, offering โa few playful drinks that might appeal to Latino customers,โ removing pour-overs from the menu (due to price point and fussiness), and bringing prices down in general by using โa different selection of coffee beans, or a slightly less expensive brand of milk.โ According to the article, Cho โplans to give an ownership stake to one of Wrecking Ballโs longtime employees, a bilingual Latino, and have him helpย run the cafeโnot because he needs a โLatino beardโโฆ but because he feels like the guy would make the most of the opportunity.โ
News of the new shop has drawn both praise and criticism from the Missionโs anti-gentrification camp, which is probably to be expected, and Tsai solicits community feedback as an integral part of the feature. The issue itself is a difficult one, but the article does a wonderful job of presenting the storyโand Choโs bold/complicated AF conceptโin a balanced manner.
Perhaps the takeaway from this entire grand experiment wonโt be the success or failure of it all, but it will be in the attempt to do something about this growing issue. Or as Cho states, โWeโre not going to fix gentrification with one cafรฉ. But weโre not going to fix gentrification if no one tries to do anything a little differently.โ
Zac Cadwaladerย is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
*top image via San Francisco Magazine