Bonsoir

I was looking for coffee in the Mission here in San Francisco, and this place called Four Barrell seemed well reviewed, so I walked over. But when I got there, there was a huge line and it was full of hipsters in designer clothes (as opposed to thrift store clothes, or hand made clothes) and as I walked through the door there was a man taking a picture of his MacBook Pro with a thousand dollar camera.

I backed slowly out.

A few blocks away is a little place called Cafe Petra (no web site). I got a small cup of coffee for $1.80 in a real mug. There are metal spoons next to the sugar. It was quiet with plenty of space to sit, benches down either side of the room with mats and pillows, like you might see in a middle eastern restaurant.

Just now a man walked and in a french accent exclaimed “Martin!” and sat down across from the man eight feet to my right. “Bonjour!” Martin said.

“Bonjour! Eh… bon soir, non?”

“We. We.”

So cute. Sometimes it’s really worth it to find a place that suits your taste.