SFMOMA Rooftop Sculpture Garden

SFMOMA will reopen in 2016, but, I used to visit there almost every month. There is 2 Café area, 1 st. Floor & on top garden café. Drip coffee at garden café is really marvelous. I always enjoyed their Fine coffee. Taste is so rich & nutritious too, I think. Also, I would like to add the comment for their Mondrian cake also. It is an Art.

oh the charm!
i had never seen this before: desserts inspired by the very art in the museum downstairs. you get to EAT art. and order it by the artist. i am a HUGE art fan, so doing this made me feel so cool!
i wanted it all. the presentation was like an art piece. i got the Frieda Kahlo wedding cookies… it comes in a charming silkscreened box, tied with a ribbon of the quote she hand painted on her painting. the mexican cookies were fresh, not too sweet, and the texture was heavenly. they are very small and about a dozen tiny cookies come packaged in the little box. i enjoyed it in a very fancy displayed cuppa. they gave me a teapot with looseleaf tea, warned me to wait «at least five minutes for it it steep» and even steamed some soy milk for me and put it in a sterling silver little pourer.
i also ordered a regular cup of coffee, which was dripped through a ceramic… coffee dripper? i am not very good with coffee, but my boyfriend said it was one of the best cups of coffee he’d EVER had, which is something coming from him, since he’s sort of a coffee-​snob.
okay, i havent even gotten to the sculptures. breathtaking. there is a Louise Bourgeois hanging out with you inside, as you enjoy your delicious beverage/​dessert. Louise Bourgeois is famous for her Maman sculptures (GIANT spider-​like sculptures across the world) but this one is called The Nest, which exemplifies one of the first of many sculptures she has built her name on.
i really wish i had access to this museum and rooftop all the time. i loved this spot so much. one of my favorites.

This is one of my favourite spots in the city (and okay yes, you have to get admission to the museum to make it up here). But I love coming here when I have the chance just so I can rest or hang out for a bit. Maybe enjoy a cup of Blue Bottle or have a quick meeting (hey, it’s not my fault I work right nearby).

Not too many sculptures, but the ones that are out there are great. Love the couple trees outside that have beautiful colored leaves, too. Can’t go wrong with a cup of Blue Bottle.

A lively place to take a breather from all the art and enjoy a hot cup of tea or coffee and some sweets. Don’t come here expecting peace and quiet, though. There are lots of loud conversations and restless kids all too happy to finally have an area to run around in. The sculptures are fun to look at, though.

My wife and I basically spent $ 44 for a little piece of cake. It was pretty good cake, but c’mon.
We are not really too into art and just like to eat all day long when we’re on vacation, so I decided we should come here since I heard a lot of good things about the Mondrian cake that is available at the Blue Bottle Café at the rooftop sculpture garden (for example, I saw it mentioned on the Food Network show The Best Thing I Ever Ate).
Imagine my wife’s outrage then when we found out we needed to purchase tickets to the museum for $ 18 each just to access the Blue Bottle Café at the Rooftop Sculpture Garden.
After I convinced both of us that it would be nice to be cultured and appreciate some art, we pretended to peruse some paintings and such on the way up to the rooftop, where we had a nice little snack before dinner. We got the Mondrian cake ($ 8), which was excellent. It has a nice chocolately fudgy layer around the border, surrounding the somewhat densely textured and delicious cake.
As a perfect complement to the cake, we also ordered the Cartagena Ice Cream/​Sorbet trio ($ 7), which consists of three little squares of sorbet (avocado, lemon and rose flavored) on top of vanilla ice cream (from local ice cream shop Humphry Slocombe). The avocado was excellent, as it was nice and creamy and went well with the vanilla ice cream. The other two flavors were pretty unpleasant as they were far too icy, so after taking a few bites we scraped the sorbet part off the top and ate the tasty vanilla ice cream that was underneath each square.
We also got some Blue Bottle Coffee, which is always excellent if not a bit pretentious and overpriced.
It was a very nice experience to enjoy these treats in a nice relaxing environment on the rooftop overlooking the city.
Oh yeah, and apparently there are some cool sculptures up here too.
(Add a star if you actually enjoy art museums).

Wow there actually is a clean public restroom in The City! And you only have to pay $ 18 to use it. But there is also a café, art cake, blue bottle coffee, some kind of rooftop, some sculptures and museum admission that goes along with it I suppose.

What’s not to like? Rooftop, view of the city, art, blue bottle coffee, all in just one little section of the MoMA! It’s a little piece of quiet, uncomplicated happiness just far enough above the city streets to regain a bit of perspective.
And yes, you have to have a MoMA ticket to get up here. Bring some friends, get a round of lattes and tasty confections, sit around in your Sunday best and enjoy each other’s company, and then see what the MoMA’s newest exhibit has in store. Perfection.

Im glad that this finally opened after some time. Getting Blue Bottle Coffee is a bonus. Some of the artists here were represented at the Guggenheim Bilbao when I was there last year (such as Louise Bourgeois). Like Bilbao, the weather tends to be on the overcast cool side but on those sunny days, feel blessed that you can get great aesthetic works, superb whether and kick ass coffee.

I wish I wasn’t so full from eating dim sum to enjoy a cup of Blue Bottle Coffee while looking at the sculptures.
There’s a modern outdoor seating area that is the perfect place to just hang out on a perfect, sunny SF afternoon with good company.
It was the perfect starting point for our museum visit.

A quiet escape from all the hustle and bustle. An outdoor portion with sculptures from artists like Calder, Newman, and Bourgeois, this is the perfect place to wind down after visiting the Museum.
Inside, there’s a large open space with tables and chairs, and a Blue Bottle Coffee kiosk for you to savour a coffee and relax. They even have artists’ themed desserts! So fun.

Exhibits change and relocate here at times. The spiders were outside the last time I was here, now they are on the inside in front of Blue Bottle Coffee. I usually start here before going to the exhibits. Cake and coffee first, checking out the exhibits here on the fifth floor, and then work my way down or head to the exhibit.
Great starting point or great unwinding point.

This place is perfect after strolling around the museum going through all the floors and their exhibits. The main room doesn’t have much seating, only tables along the windows. I guess they’re going for that open look and to have an unobstructed view of the spider sculpture and the other end of the room. However, there’s ample seating outside so you can take a breath of fresh air.
I needed a caffeine fix after the long Stein’s exhibit so I came here for a cappuccino. The line was long as each drink was hand crafted — yes, even the regular coffee is made individually. But it was absolutely worth the wait. My cappuccino had a beautiful rosetta leaf in the layer of micro foam, velvety and was strong. Mmm… Blue Bottle espresso is great.

ambiance is great! The coffee served her is wonderful since it’s serves in real glasses and has cute designs made out of milk like leaves and hearts and deserts are moma themed! Best thing ever weather permitted. Go here after soaking up some culture at the museum.

SFMOMA pastry chef Leah Rosenberg makes beautiful cakes.

In all my years of latte-​drinking (not that many years, probably around 5? Anyway, this isn’t all about me, as much I want it to be), I have NEVER EVER had a soy mocha latte as good as the one concocted by Blue Bottle. Good grief, it was as they melted actual densely decadent blocks of chocolate heaven into my beverage.
Lately, I’ve not been very keen on sweeter drinks. I usually have my coffees sans sweetener of any kind. Occasionally I will treat myself to a soy latte as they typically aren’t chockfull of syrup-​y sucrose intensity. Anyway, this mocha latte was completely worth the sugar splurge and a billion calories. I was dying. It was so good. And served up in a beautiful rustic modern ceramics — nice touch.
As for the actual Rooftop Sculpture Garden — it’s quite lovely. Should you wish to enjoy your beverage and/​or snacks (there’s all kinds of art-​themed cakes and pastries) inside, there’s not much in terms of seating. However the area is encased in glass, so the natural sunlight provides a soothing experience, minus dealing with the actual elements. There’s a couple of looming sculptures for that extra decorative touch.
The rooftop is pretty fantastic — there were a couple of families with young children, sitting and exploring around. You can enjoy a semi-​obstructed view of the city from here as well. I’m sure many family portraits have been rendered rooftop.
Basically the best thing about this area is the Blue Bottle, but it’s worth a visit if you’re wandering about SFMOMA anyway.

I love how they offer Blue Bottle Coffee in this café where the rooftop sculpture garden is at the SF MOMA. Great coffee, but long lines, and not enough seating in the inside area. The long lines are due to the freshly brewed drip coffee. They grind and brew your coffee when you order, so that is a plus.
I tried the famous Mondrian cake. The chocolate they use to cover the cake with was really rich and smooth, but unfortunately the pound cake was a bit dry. It wasn’t worth $ 8, but it’s definitely a very pretty slice of cake. They probably charge an arm and a leg for the cake, because it seems like it’s pretty labor intensive to make.
Aside from the long lines and the expensive art cake, I love the sculptures and the lay out of the garden. If it wasn’t such a cold and rainy day on Saturday, I would have loved to sit on the two weirdly shaped tan chairs in the middle of the garden and stare into the sky. I was just unlucky to have come on a rainy day, so I didn’t get to enjoy the garden as much.

This place is relatively new and has a nice café to accompany the ‘garden’.
But crazy story — I was here for the 75^th anniversary. Since admission was free, the place was understandably packed. A patron was leaving the garden and heading back inside. He was going to run into another patron heading into the garden so he moved a bit and his bag caught one of the installations and pulled it off the bolts and knocked it on the floor! The whole floor became silent and everyone turned to see the metal basket-​shaped art piece roll on the ground.
Security quickly rushed over and took a look, but they’re no artists so they couldn’t do much. The man quickly took responsibility for the accident and security took down his contact info (not sure if he has to pay for the accident or not). To be honest, I hope not — the piece of artwork hardly got scratched since it’s metal after all, but it still requires labor to lock back in.
Anyway — work to the wise. Even though you can touch and pose with the statues, don’t knock them over!

Photo ops up here are so much fun. The lower levels restrict photography but here, it’s all you. The outside sculpture garden is a playground almost, and we just found ourselves running amuck like 5 year olds.
Fun fun place.

Mother’s Day was the grand opening of the «Rooftop Garden»
To get here, take the main elevators to the fourth floor, climb up the stairs to get to the fifth floor and cross the extended bridge to the other side of the building.
You know you’ve arrived at your destination because it clearly says «Rooftop Garden». Haha!
The first thing that came out of mom’s mouth was:
«If this is a garden, where are the flowers? and there’s only two trees in here!»
LOL!
I reminded her that this is probably different from your usual garden because it’s SF MOMA. Think along the lines of: rock, metal, glass and bronze colors.
A nicely laid out space with ample room to walk around and take pics. Just don’t touch the sculptures when having your picture taken, or the elderly museum guide might get pissed off. (yes, I’m speaking from my mom’s personal experience!)