Showplace Caffè

I use to enjoy chatting with the guy behind the counter and loved the fact that it was a personable place to get great coffee and have a random conversation.
Then one day I popped in and the guy was real moody and irritable. He acted like I insulted him somehow, though I never did. His sudden attitude change was very out of the blue but it persisted for months. I brushed it aside and continued to go there since it is nearby, and thinking it was just a mood from lack of weed or whatever.
Then out of no where one day he talked down to me in front of a few customers. It was like an older brother abusing a younger brother. Completely disrespect to the point where I had to refrain from punching him. He ordered me to do something and was extremely bitchy about it. It was like a smug hipster whining that I ordered a coffee and he did not feel like making a coffee. The way he talked down to me shocked the other customers. I was just a guy in their buying coffee, minding my own business, and not deserving of this bitches attitude.
Its a shame how places get ruined by staff. Though this place has an owner who is the epitome of a smug, whiny, dis-​respectful San Franciscan. There is nothing you can do about it except hope they go out of business and that this smug ass finds something to do with his life not involving customer service. Something where he can talk with other smug asses about his arrogant view on life and live out his life thinking that his shit don’t stink. When we all know that it does.

Self regarding place with arrogant obnoxious staff. Extremely lame. Avoid avoid avoid.

The 1-​star reviews are hilarious. Showplace roasts their own coffee on the spot, specifically to their own standards and guess what… it’s amazing. Can they be a little irascible sometimes… Sure. If that offends your sensibilities, then move along. If you want the best espresso you can find in the area… come here. For what it’s worth (to the one-​star folks), they’re actually quite chatty and polite when you mutually engage them like human beings.

I work at the flower mart across the way, and my coworkers and i call this place Rudeboy Coffee. it’s the only place to get a good cup of coffee within the block, so we all go, but that barista dude is so mean! I think it’s funny because the place is connected to an autobody shop and practically under the freeway entrance. Like, who are you trying to impress? It’s not like this is Valencia street. He gets all winded and starts sighing and going ‘ughhhh…’ the moment you order a drink. One time i asked for a hot chocolate and he sighed and i said «if its too hard i’ll just get a latte» and he was like «no, i’m already making it.» Like, thanks, Daria. It’s really quite funny. You should go. Good coffee tho innit.

I’m joining the 1 star club here — The guy behind the counter that I’m assuming is the owner, Ryan, is extremely lazy, irritable, and has the most negative attitude. I had a quick question about how to change my email on his Square device and he instantly seemed annoyed and started talking to me like I was totally putting him out. He looked at me and shouted «Oooookay» as if «what do you want me to do about it?». He reluctantly explained a process that did not exist on the device and started talking to me as if I was an idiot. He did give me his wifi password, so I’ll give him 1 star for that.
He ended up closing down early because «it was slow» — another words, nobody has walked in over the last 10 minutes and my only customer is this Asian girl who is on her laptop (me), not buying anything and just using my wifi so her business is of no value to me.
The comment by one of the «regulars» who reviewed this place mentioned that Ryan is rude only to self important tech people which is such a self righteous comment and I resent that.

I never write reviews and even created this Unilocal account to voice how shocked I am at the attitude of the main barista.
I’m all about local small businesses succeeding, but in this case I’m absolutely shocked this place is still actually in business. I’m not sure if the blonde hair guy (Ryan?) is the owner or not, but how on earth is he the customer service face of this business? He’s got some serious ‘tude’ with anyone who isn’t his friend sitting on the sofa taking up space. I’ve had two interactions with him (both exchanging money) and both were rude to a point of checking myself if he was joking or not. alas. just rude.
I’m sure he would read this and say «well then don’t come in if you don’t like me being rude to you» and I no longer will, but seriously man… why are you even in the business if your main job is interacting with foot traffic? I just don’t get it.
I’m convinced any positive reviews on here are his personal friends-​those sitting on the sofa

Great coffee and great music…
BUT MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR SANITATION ISSUES.
— I sat on their couch and had three bug bites within five minutes.
— I sat at their grimy window and watched flies buzz around trying to escape.
— DO NOT FOR THE LIFE OF YOU USE THEIR BATHROOM OMG THAT SHIT IS NASTY NASTY NASTY (stench, dirt, and grime on errrrrrything).
Get in, get out, and try not to think too much about what might be going into your coffee.

Ryan is passionate about coffee and makes damn good espresso drinks. He can be moody, but that makes him a normal human being, with emotions, and not a faceless robot making coffee.
Awesome collection of books, by the way.

If you spread your arms out and walk 18 steps forward and 10 steps to the right in an L shape, you’ll get an idea of how big this coffee shop is. I walked a little ways to get here, expecting a café of some sort but was greeted by a quiet little shop surrounded by buzzing traffic, a couple couches, and stools by the table window.
Placed my order, asked for the wifi code (which I think is someone’s phone number?) Took a stool and sat window-​facing to get some work done. The coffee was really good, didn’t try any of the baked goods.
Seems like there’s a lot of regulars that frequent this place, if I was closer or it was closer to something I wanted to eat, I’d probably come here more often.
Owner was nice to me, closes at 3pm.

Ryan is chill and will reflect your state of mind. Best goddamn cappuccino ever and the croissants are pretty dang. The entire atmosphere is great.

Solid coffee, café connected to an automotive shop, tiny and rad décor.
Meh, main barista (Ryan) is grumpy-​sounding, but that’s just his surface style.
Actually talk with him, especially about coffee, and he’s really friendly and engaging. On prompting, explained to me the difference between latte and cappuccino, different milk frothing styles, temperatures, and what his favorites are. No condescending talk, no «pffft you don’t know this?» attitude… just education.
As for attitude-​bashing in other reviews… I don’t think this place would be the same without Ryan’s honest personality. Some days are good, some are bad, and dammit some days I just don’t want to see your damn face. Accuse me of abstracting this experience, but it’s refreshing to see this supposed inversion of «customer service».
Visit this shop and expect a real human to make you the best cappuccino you’ve ever encountered.

Ok, so first things first: I’m one of the ‘regulars’ that everyone else is bitching about. I have my morning coffee here every day on the way to work. And I’ve had a *lot* of opportunities to witness the attitude that everyone’s moaning about.
Before getting into detail, here’s the skinny: if you’re a polite person, without an inflated sense of self-​importance, and you value *great* coffee then you’ll love this place and Ryan (the owner /​barista) will be your best friend. If you’re a self-​important soma tech jerk (i.e. you think your RSUs /​job at Pinterest make you special) then you’re probably not going to have a good time here.
Reviewers who are complaining about the coffee: you don’t know what you’re talking about. If you value great coffee then do yourself a favor and just come try it.
Now let’s get into some detail because I’m often on the other side of this kind of reviews situation, trying to find a new bar or whatever and put off by all the ‘omg the owner /​waiter /​bartender is a total asshole’ 1 star reviews. Here are some thoughts:
***
People that work retail /​service industry have lives and moods too. It’s not their duty to make you feel warm and fuzzy about yourself. You’re paying them for their expertise. Their duty is to deliver their good /​service professionally. If they happen to like you and you’re an interesting person, maybe you’ll strike up a friendship! The best people don’t fake this stuff, and Ryan is one such person. If you’re looking for Cali-​style fake friendliness go to a starbucks.
This attitude is perfectly exemplified by whichever asshole below writes «Sorry bud, that’s not how customer service works» — erm, actually ‘bud’ customer service works however you fucking want it to work. Being sycophantic is not customer service.
This is not a chain. It is owned by two friends, one of whom is the barista. There are a number of characteristics that are amazing about this: you develop a relationship with the staff, with the other customers, and you get attention to detail and care which gets diffused when ownership and operation are divorced (just go to sightglass to experience this). If you don’t value this, you shouldn’t go here (and tbh you should gtfo SF since the dominance of owner-​operated small businesses vs massive chains is one of the best things about this fair city). And if you don’t understand why they care about you sitting in here for hours and hours chatting, taking up space from paying customers who are trying to consume the drinks they bought then you should imagine yourself in the owner’s position.
This is a third-​wave coffeeshop. That means they take coffee seriously. You wouldn’t go into a great wine bar (Terroir on 7^th and Folsom is one such establishment) and ask for an extra shot of vodka in your house red, would you? Now you can understand why it’s borderline offensive to try and tell the barista how to make your drink. Again, Starbucks offers you just that — so go there if that’s what you want.
Self-​important tech assholes. Now, I work at a startup and I’m a recent transplant to this city. But that doesn’t mean you have to think that anyone else cares about your world. Because they don’t. Ryan is one such person. The fact that your startup is killing it, you raised from a16z or your RSUs make you rich on paper do not impress us. So check your attitude at the door, and be a regular human. You’ll find that other regular, complex humans from other walks of life are actually interested in forming relationships with you! Who knew?! Crazy right.
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I pretty much think it comes down to this: if you’re a shitty person you’ll hate this place. If you’re not a shitty person you’ll love it.

The guy who owns this place is a special kind of a**hole. You don’t like serving people drinks? Fine. Don’t run a coffee shop — no brainer!
Hands down one of the worst coffee experiences I’ve had. We walk in to find the café apparently unmanned. We realize that the barista is sitting hidden away with a book. He looks up, scowls at us and continues to read. Grudgingly, he finally gets up and walks behind the counter. My mom nicely asks him what he’s reading. He ignores her. I order a cappuccino, and my brother asks if he can have a Vietnamese iced coffee. The barista says, «no, you can’t have that.» No explanation. A pause as we all wonder if he’s joking — he’s not. «That’s an item we don’t have today,» he finally offers. Then he starts to hum loudly to the record that’s playing. At this point, I’m ready to tell him to go f*ck himself, but he’s already started making my drink.
My cappuccino turns out to be a tiny latte — no foam whatsoever. I could overlook the horrible service, maybe, if the coffee was good. It was not. I would never go back here. The owner is a jerk and the coffee sucks.

This barista was being an asshole.
I stood in front of the counter for a couple minutes, but he acted like he didn’t see nobody… so then I just pointed at the pastry box and asked if I can get one of the croissants.
He was like «Oh you mean the almond croissant? It’s 3 bucks.»
I was like «ok… can I also get a latte togo?»
The next thing he said completely pissed me off…
«Oh yeah yeah we have those, too»
Excuse me? you think I don’t know what a fucking latte is?
The attitude was ridiculously poor and the coffee wasn’t that great anyways…
The reviews brought me to the store, but I was very disappointed. Definitely not going back here.

in the land of haughty, obnoxious hipster baristas, this place wins the award for worst coffee and service I’ve even experienced. OK, the barista was kinda rude but whatever. after ordering we sat down in the little sofa area to enjoy our coffee and he walks over and puts a record (yeah, vinyl, so you know how cool the place is) on the stereo next to us and cranks the volume loud enough so we can’t talk. stunned, I walked over to the counter and asked if he really had to have the music on now since we weren’t able to talk and he says «yes» and turns away. wtf. so we walk outside and I take a sip of my cappuccino and it’s not even warm. I tipped the guy $ 2 on a $ 6.50 bill too. my bad
the coffee is not even good. if the coffee was amazing I’d forgive the rest, but this place deserves to go away and I hope it does soon.

Showplace Caffe offers a pleasant atmosphere and some quality coffee. I had a cappuccino and a chocolate croissant, both were pretty good. The place itself is quite lovely and cozy. Sit back and enjoy your coffee while listening to some of their vinyl selections.
Careful about planning a morning coffee meeting here, they were just opening when I showed up at 8:20.

Great cappuccino.
I’m stuck on jury duty for the next month so naturally I’m getting to to know the area… and I’ve also got a lot of time to write reviews.
This place is a great find — cute little low key space with an industrial vibe (it’s literally the corner of an auto garage building with glass separating the two).
I walked in in the middle if the lunch hour today and no one was there but the owner so clearly I got great service, had a nice little conversation and a fantastic coffee.
Definitely worth spreading the word…

I’d give it 4.5 stars honestly. Yummy soy latte. The barista knew his stuff too. The store is a little cramped, but I hung out since I had a few minutes to kill before a meeting. Love the Café Du Monde tins around the store.
Good coffee stop on the way to work!

Was biking on my way to site glass and stumbled upon this gem. The barista was super helpful and pointed me in the direction I needed to go with the choice of beans for my pour over.
Dry washed Ethiopians are some of my favorite beans and so rare. Thanks for carrying them. I just might get a second cup.

I believe it was the owner of this place that told my fiancé and I we had to buy two drinks in order to stay and use the wi-​fi for 45 mins (time left in our parking meter). He didn’t suggest it, he nearly expected it of us. Extremely rude and borderline shocked that this place gets good reviews. I love coffee and all but the coffee can’t be fully enjoyed when you have a pretentious owner telling you what you need to buy. Sorry bud, that’s not how customer service works; but if it did, I’m sure you would’ve actually had a reason for kicking us out of an empty coffee shop.
My apologies: if it wasn’t the owner that told us this, then to the owner — might want to do an attitude check on your baristas.

I’ve been to Showplace Caffe before to pick up a drink to go (coffee is okay but nothing special, especially with so many other great coffee spots nearby, IMO), but today this establishment really left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The owner was extremely rude and rushed us out, badgering us to purchase more drinks in order to stay and sit. His excuse? «I only have like, eight seats in here.» Funny thing is, we were the only real customers there besides his friends who were just sitting around chatting.
I’m really, really surprised this place is even a business. I would highly advise anyone wanting a good coffee shop experience to avoid at all costs. There are tons of friendlier, MUCH better coffee places in the area (e.g. Philz).

This dinky SOMA café is located right next to an auto mechanic. My co-​worker and I came in here today because his computer battery was dieing and Sightglass didn’t have any power outlets (bastards) for him to recharge.
So we wound up around the corner at this place.
I think it’s fair to say that Showplace Caffe is the polar opposite of Sightglass. Whereas Sightglass is a two floor coffee emporium filled with local hipsters, Showplace Caffe is a hole in the wall joint with like 2 tables and some counter seating. The only hipster here is the sullen barista listening to Lou Reed and reading «American Psycho» on the job. I almost felt guilty interrupting his book to order some Four Barrel coffee.
Fortunately, he perked up and made us a pair of Vietnamese Ice Coffees (very refreshing on a hot day like today).
This is actually a chill spot to bust out with the ol’ laptop and get some work done. It’s not too busy or noisy.
So if your car is in need of repair and you want some caffeine while you wait, Showplace Caffe is the place for you.