Photo: Cavalli Cafe 1441 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA 94133
This shopping season avoid big chain stores and think/buy small, mom and pop shops to help local businesses and organizations effectively spread the pro local / independent business message during the holidays... and year round! "Going local with your spending by supporting locally owned, independent businesses causes a "multiplier effect" that keeps more money re-circulating in our community. "
It feels good to support your friends and community, builds relationships and community cohesiveness, and there are perks to shopping small as well. Some of them are:
- Unique gifts - selling their own handmade products, offering yoga and other workshops, getting to know your merchants
- Better, more personalized customer service - small-business employees may have more knowledge of the products and services they’re selling
- Supporting your community - friends business, and puts money into the local economy, residents with roots in the community are involved in key development decisions that shape our lives and local environment.
- Better for the environment. Merchandise is not traveling thousands of miles by ship or train to reach your home. Local businesses consume less land, carry more locally-made products, locate closer to residents and create less traffic and air pollution.
- Small Businesses Create Jobs! "it’s the small businesses that drive our economic growth in the United States. When small businesses thrive, we see more job creation and a booming economy. In fact, small businesses have created over 66% of all new jobs since 1995. They’ve added over 8 million jobs since 1990 — meanwhile, big businesses have actually eliminated around 4 million. Small businesses are also helping to grow the ‘gig economy,’ utilizing contract and freelance workers to help address their needs." grasshopper.com
- Shape our character - Independent businesses help give your community its distinct personality.
Top Reasons to Buy Local, Eat Local, Go Local
American Independent Business Alliance
Below I've put together a list of my favorite drink in the world: Bean Juice! #coffee
I will list shops around the San Francisco Bay Area as well as Lake Tahoe Area! Please let me know if you'd like me to highlight your business! I'd love to support you!
Caffe, Roasting, Beans are the perfect gift for someone who loves being caffeinated!
1. Graffeo Coffee Roasting Company - North Beach, San Francisco
You know it when you taste it. Once you have, no other coffee will do
735 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133
www.graffeo.com
Graffeo was founded in 1935 on the streets of San Francisco's Italian culinary capital, North Beach. Graffeo is one of North America's oldest artisan coffee roasters and remains a family-run company passed on down through generations.
A cherished institution from the beginning, we started by hand roasting our select blend providing aficionados and the first European-style cafes' with rich, dark, fresh roasted coffee beans.
2. Caffe Trieste - North Beach, San Francisco
If asked how he does it, “No big deal,” Papa Gianni would say. “Buy the best beans, roast them yourself, and brew each cup like it’s for you.”
601 Vallejo St, San Francisco
caffetrieste.com/shop
"Our historic caffe location at 601 Vallejo Street (North Beach-San Francisco) was the first espresso coffee house established on the West Coast (1956). “Papa Gianni” Giotta and his family single-handedly launched the Espresso movement as we know it. The Caffe has become famous across the world for its combination of essences: Old Italy, Bohemian poets, art and music, and excellent Espresso."
The Giotta Family’s famous Saturday afternoon concert takes place monthly (go to Music and Events pages for more information). The Caffe serves hundreds of thousands of cups of coffee per year, and along with its sister locations, the Caffes serve millions of cups per year. Caffe website here: Trieste
3. Caffe Roma North Beach, San Francisco
CLOSED Updated Dec 2020
For three generations the Azzollini family of Turin and Rome, Italy, has skillfully blended and roasted premium coffee beans for the most discriminating palates. It is with the same pride and care that our family now brings you the distinctive flavors of both the North and the South of Italy.
526 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133
Welcome To Caffe Roma
Let us roast a fresh batch of outstanding Caffe Roma coffee for you and send it to your door, satisfaction guaranteed. To order via UPS, simply use the order form, call us at 800-296-ROMA (7662), or fax us at (415) 431-8855.
Founded in 1989 by Anthony and Sergio Azzollini, Caffe Roma is built on the experience of three generations of the Azzollini family. Father Sergio came to San Francisco from Italy over 40 years ago to open the first coffeehouse on Columbus Avenue in 1977.
4. Verve Coffee Roast
The term "Streetlevel" encapsulates everything we do in order to share our coffees with our community. Inspired by neighborhood "street level" cafes of Europe, where community members meet every morning to discuss elements of life over espresso and cappuccinos, the life that happens within our cafes vibrates with a similar energy.
816 41st Ave, Santa Cruz, CA
vervecoffee.com
Verve came to be through the serendipitous union of surf, sweat and a love of life and living. In 2007, founders Ryan and Colby built and opened the first Verve cafe on 41st Ave in Santa Cruz, California. Today, Verve has locations in cities from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Tokyo, but our roots remain planted in Santa Cruz, where we roast our coffee on vintage roasters and enjoy the endless surf of the rugged California coast.
5. Pacific Crest Coffee Company
"Pacific Crest Coffee Company is a bean-to-cup coffee business. We aim to highlight the unique coffee flavor characteristics attributed to its origin, how the coffee fruit was removed from its seed and other agricultural processing factors, how it was roasted, and how it was brewed. We take our role in coffee’s value chain seriously, honoring the care given by those that precede us with roasting that showcases their hard work and produces an excellent cup of coffee." Read more
10736 Pioneer Trail, Suite 13, Truckee, CA, 96161
Call: (530)536-5135 | Email: coffee@pacificcrestcoffee.com
6. Coffee Bar - Truckee
Coffeebar works with local farms to source organically grown produce and eggs. In turn, Coffeebar produces compost and then donates it back to the farms to create a full circle.
10120 Jibboom St Suite #101
coffeebar.com
At Coffeebar we like to have fun with our coffee... just try a Caffe’ Marocchino! BUT, we take our beans seriously. We use organic, C1 Grade coffees. The C1/Specialty grade is the highest level of industry designation in the coffee business. There is not a higher grade of coffee available on the market.
7. Coffee Bodega
3231 Fillmore St. San Francisco, CA 94123
Jackson Bar window in Cow Hollow near Lombard St.
Last but not least, Coffee Bodega! Delicious coffee from small Costa Ricain farmers that roast what they pick. This gives the farmers more income versus selling green beans.
Hand-made in Costa Rica! This farm-to-table coffee "roasted and packed by small farmer cooperatives in its natural environment; a socially responsible approach that yield exceptional coffees that are produced in a sustainable way." Costa Rica Coffee Bodega
Why? "Coffee farmer cooperatives produce some of the most amazing coffees you’ll ever taste, they have the collective knowledge, experience and resources to produce truly exceptional coffees with the utmost respect for their land."
I'll even buy your first cup! Let's do coffee!
One of my fav song as a kid was singing this song and walking our dogs on the old train tracks in Daly City. The train tracks are no longer there, but the music about java lives on! Cheers!
