The San Anselmo Coffee Roastery

One of my favorite cafes. Great location. Great outdoor seating. Kind staff (with almost zero turnover). Strong Internet.
However, I have three suggestions for improvement:
1. When a customer pays by credit/​debit card, there is no way to tip the staff. They deserve to be tipped. This is simply unconscionable. It is unfair to the staff and uncomfortable for the customers. Welcome to the 21^st century, get Square (
). It takes 15 minutes to setup. No paper receipts. You use an iPad mounted on a rotating stand.
2. Improve the coffee. We’re on the Third Wave of coffee now in the rest of the world. This place is still on the Second Wave and roasts the heck out of the beans. It’s not the baristas. It is the bean. Visit Taylor Maid in San Rafael for much better coffee.
3. Get rid of that giant roaster and all the burlap bags of beans sitting around. More tables in a better laid out arrangement would be way more interesting. The roaster and beans no longer are a cutting edge design elements. Why remind people that the coffee style is 20 years old? Why take up all that space where people could sit?
Otherwise, I really like this place and am grateful for all the hard work that goes into making it happen.
Thank you!

I will always come back for their Latte’s. Today was nice over there. They had a Jazz band playing and its a bit better than Pete’s. The Desserts are quite good too. I have enjoyed the flourless brownie and a slice of their Key Lime Pie. I have yet to try their breakfast or lunch options, although they look very good. The Latte’s are spot on!

The drinks were delicious and worth their value, but it took a lot of work (on MY part) to get the order right. After repeating myself 4 times, I was told my total was $ 3. I knew that was impossible for 2 drinks + a banana. I had to repeat my order 3 additional times… slowly. I then paid and didn’t ask for a receipt. I should have because it may have helped me nip the order errors in the bud. I ordered a cold vanilla milk for my daughter and a vanilla malt for myself. I ended up with a vanilla hot chocolate and a root beer float??? Whaaaaat? I then repeated my order to the baristta 4 times. The cashier and the baristta then told me I didn’t say «cold milk», and looked at me like it was MY fault that they had made a hot drink for a child on a HOT day. Fine, I take the hot drink. Neither of them even flinched. But they both knew that there was no way that «vanilla malt» was the same as «root beer float», so they exchanged it. Not very friendly Coffee Roastery. NOT very friendly.

4 words: Vanilla lattes + Breaky burritos.
So good! A go-​to when we are visiting the area.

I really don’t like these people.
They’re not friendly for one, but the worse thing is the feeling I get about their intention. Hey, this is a community coffee place you’d think their prices would be neighborly. Nope. As much as they can get out of you.
This morning they were selling a kind of cheese croissant for $ 5! Really?

Their house coffee is a darker roast. I prefer a medium to light roast, but with that being said their coffee is still very good. The atmosphere is the best. Great to sit outside and people watch. I love their small sandwiches too. They are the perfect snack size/​price.

A great coffee place to hang out best coffee in town the staff are friendly and great they know your name in line and the order that service with a smile

Really nice place to work, plenty of seating and outdoors too. Free wifi, nice atmosphere. That’s what really keeps me coming back.
The coffee is so so, I find it to have that highly acidic bitter taste. Not full bodied or rich, how I like it. Also the cookies aren’t great, hard and crusty, not soft and chewy.

Hands down a great spot to work and enjoy some coffee — fast wifi, electrical outlets galore, open air seating, and delicious coffee. The only thing that needs some work is the food — there just isn’t much and it goes quick.

I’m a traveling coffee junkie. So, whenever I can I tryout different neighborhood spots searching to find a fabulous, perfectly made latte. So, I stopped this morning to tryout this neighborhood coffee spot. Sadly, my latte’s foam lacked body and was watery and the coffee was bitter. Space was cramped on inside for a rainy day, but they do have outdoor sitting for a sunny day. Convenient location. It is too too bad they don’t have better coffee and training of their employees

I go here a lot, at least once a week.
It is fast. There’s never a line. And they get my order right every single time. Everyone who works there is nice, from the owners to the baristas. It is quiet and clean. So many coffee shops are grungy and dirty and the drink orders take forever and get mixed up… not here.
If you are like me and you just want a latte and you are in a hurry, come here when you’re in san anselmo.

Amazing staff and wide selection of delicious coffee, pastries, and sandwiches. Go here almost daily.

Delicious handmade lattes and coffee, with beans roasted in-​house. Definitely a great place to stop in for a quick breakfast. I especially recommend the bagels with «the works,» which includes cucumber, tomato, and sprouts. Onion bagel with cream cheese and the works = maybe I can make it through the day after all.

The most expensive soy cappuccino in Marin! $ 4.36. Good Earth charges $ 2.98 for the same thing, and believe me, Good Earth is not known for how inexpensive it is.
Most cafes charge around $ 3.50 for a soy capp. And as others have said, the coffee ain’t that great.
The outdoor area is nice and the indoor area has plenty of outlets for study hall on computers.

Dear Roastery,
Please act like a decent coffee shop. It seems like every time I come in, you don’t listen to my order. If I say To Go, you give me a ceramic mug. If I say For Here, you hand me a paper cup. My egg and cheese bagel only has cheese half of the time. If I ask for it toasted, you microwave into an inedible rock. You’re just going through the motions of being a coffee shop. You can do better.

A great place for some things and not so much for others. I definitely recommend getting the espresso beverages and teas here, but not the drip coffee. For some reason, it tastes as though the beans have been burnt??? Which isn’t so bad when it comes to lattes, just not in my drip coffee please! As far as food goes, I’m not a fan of their lunch and/​or savory products, but I do really enjoy their almond croissants! Their other pastries have been good as well, so you can safely count on their sweets.
Great spot for meeting up with friends or grabbing something while you’re out and about. However, I wouldn’t recommend bringing your laptop here to work remotely for long periods of time due to two factors: noise and sunlight. The building layout amplifies everything, which is no real fault of the establishment, but there’s a certain time of day where you just CAN’T escape the sunlight. So, come here to relax, chat, hang around for a bit and people watch — not to work.
Also, to tie into my point regarding noise: they often have musicians perform, and usually they sound great, but I’m pretty sure the guy they brought in the other day was using an amp. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but that seems a little ‘much’ for a performance for a few random people in a café.
Ultimately, I like going here because it’s local, quirky, their white mochas aren’t too shabby, and I have yet to experience anything terrible that would prevent me from returning.

Dear SA Coffee Roastery, I will start by saying I LOVE coffeeshops. And coffee. And your café (and the twin in Fairfax) have a pretty good atmosphere. Casual, good music, burlap bags of beans to add to the ambience. But my god, the coffee! The coffee! What have you done to these poor beans? Perhaps 15 years ago, this would have been thought of as a good cup of joe. But with the influx of amazing roasters, your beans seem like black death by comparison. You burn them to within an inch of their lives!
Coffee shouldn’t need to be weighed down by tons of cream to be enjoyed. The bitterness in your roasts is a real shame, because I’m sure you use good quality product. A quick note to the actual person who roasts: Have you been to Four Barrel, or Sightglass, or Stumptown, or even Blue Bottle? THAT’S good coffee. And most of it has to do with a gentle, thoughtful person roasting the beans. They come out brown, not black. They make tremendous espresso.
Please do your homework and bring your cafes into the world of good coffee! We deserve it, and you deserve it too.

A simple, local coffee shop that charges a fair price for a decent cup of coffee. I feel that the locals would know more than I can comment on but suffice to say I thought the dark coffee had a good deep flavor and mild bitter notes.
Overall Thoughts
Worth a try if you are in the area, no harm in supporting local business

Coffee Roastery is distinguished by the copper coffee roaster in the center of the shop. friendly greetings from the associates was an unexpected plus.
patio seating in the marin sun is another bonus.
menu: sammies, bagels, expressos, pastries, italian sodas,
drink: organic coffee (m.2)
–smooth on the edge boldness. spot on dark roast.
drips:
–large menu of eats to nibble on.
–plenty of seating in or out.

I always enjoy passing up Starbucks (and Peet’s to a lesser degree) if I can find a locally-​run coffee house. Dunno, I just like the idea of the shop owner being on hand so I can get the story on where the coffee comes from, and also, to have the boss handy to hear all my little bitchy complaints.
Outdoor seating is right on the sidewalk where you can watch all the Caucasian families tool by on mountain bikes. This is a town where no one ever seems to go to work, and it’s fun to kick back and imagine I’m one of those peeps — for an hour at least.
Heck, by now it’s time to wander down the street to Comforts for some good deli grub… or just down the street to that new wine/​cheese shop that’s opening up.
Added bonus, the weather in San Anselmo is about as close to perfect as I’ve found!