Heeeeeeyyyy Charlie...

Heeeeeeyyyy Charlie, come down this alley, Charlie.... pssst.. just a little closer.. yeah, this alley... down a little further....

A recent article in the SF Chronicle reluctantly piqued my curiosity. An Alley coffee shop? -- Really? For the sake of abstaining from normalcy, I usually avoid newspaper finds, however, something about going down a random alley in the Mission in pursuit of stellar niche coffee really got my attention. I mean how often does something like that come up?

Later that same week, I put in a phone call to Dave, bassist and visitor. A fitting 'Charlie' if I don't say so myself. Trusting, grouchy and doe-eyed. We settled on 10 am Saturday. Planning to meet up with him there, I surreptitiously guided him by phone to the alley a la Charlie.

Much to my dismay, I found him 15 minutes later with generic 'natural food' store coffee benched and waiting outside 24th street Bart Station.

"What happened?!"

"Uhmm.. I thought you meant this place?

I glared at him, minorly annoyed, and then glanced over at the coffee shop on the corner of 16th and Valencia. ((Not even remotely close to the instructions dictated earlier --'walk down Valencia towards 15, hang a right on fifteenth and then a left on... )) yeah... so I was bit put off; my plan to get him into the alley FOILED ::evil gesture of hands rubbing together::"

Having sufficiently glared at Dave we 'pleasantly' made our way to the 16th/Mission Bart station walking one block over to 15th and a hop to Caledonia lane. 3/4ths of the way into the dead-end alley is when you start realizing that you're really at the right location--the two lonely cafe chairs and sounds of shots being pulled give away its hiding spot.

Verdict - Hidden Treasure --Oh, Booty!

STATS:
Owner: Jeremy Tooker (ex-Ritual)
Beans: Stumptown (for now)
Get: Latte (not skinny)