Red Door Coffee

POPOS.  One of the more unique elements of San Francisco, and something many locals are not aware of.  

What are POPOS?  Privately Owned Public Open Spaces, basically, kinda interesting locations that seem like you shouldn't just be able to use them, but, actually, you can.  Anyone can.  Sometimes they are up on rooftops, sometimes they have beautiful landscaping and wildlife, often they have seating.  Developers get tax incentives to have these in their properties, and they go largely underutilized.  

505 Howard St, a mixed use commercial building, has one of these spaces, and, adjacent to it, a coffee shop, a tiny coffee shop, Red Door Coffee, which also has a location at Minna Gallery.  They don't roast their own beans (they use Four Barrel), they don't make their own pastries (sourced from other local brands), and they don't even have their own seating (they utilize the POPOS).  But its a convenient stop for office workers nearby, and, pre-pandemic, was always fairly busy.

The Space

Outdoor Seating.

Red Door Coffee does not, in fact, have a red door.  I'm not sure where the name comes from.  They also don't have much curb appeal, just a small sign, quite easy to miss.  They have direct access to the outdoors, and also interior to the office building lobby.

Outside is plentiful seating, provided by the building, not dedicated to the coffee shop.

Public Open Space: Inside.

Inside also has plentiful seating, again, provided by the building, as part of the large lobby area.  This is also a POPOS, and can be used by anyone, even if they aren't visiting Red Door coffee or a tenant in the building.

Drinks

I don't review it often, but I am actually a big coffee drinker, I start my every day with a cup of coffee, alongside a piece of chocolate (and breakfast of course).

Coffee Menu.

Red Door uses Four Barrel for their coffee.  All your standard espresso based drinks are available, along with drip or cold brew, and chai.

Decaf Americano. $3.

I ordered my test of a coffee shop: a decaf americano (decaf drip is not available), as it was later in the day, and I cut myself off of regular.

Decaf is particularly temperamental, and often has a "funk" or strange sweetness to it.  It rarely has much complexity.

This isn't my first time having Four Barrel decaf, but, I know from experience that how old the beans are, and how well the shot is pulled can greatly effect the outcome.  And sans milk, an americano really needs the quality to be there, or, you get nasty decaf (and, don't get me started on the truly undrinkable decaf blend we have from Four Barrel at my office).

I was very pleasantly surprised.  While not particularly complex, it had no funk, no sweetness, and was just very smooth, pure, and quite drinkable.  Nicely done Red Door!

$3 is pretty standard for a basic coffee drink.  Only one size drink is available, and I would have preferred a bigger one, as this was gone in a flash.  The person behind me did order at 12 ounce Americano, which I didn't realize was an option, so, I'd certainly do that myself next time.

****.

Finishing Station.

The finishing station is no frills.  No line up of assorted dairy products, just regular sugar, honey, and simple syrup available.  Luckily, my drink didn't need anything.

Baked Goods

While I was there for coffee, you know me, I was also interested in the baked goods, particularly as I knew how well curated they were.

Happy Hour and Baked Goods Menu.

On the other side of the ordering window was the Happy Hour menu (beer and wine), plus self serve water (very appreciated), and a rather vague menu of the baked goods, e.g. it just said "Neighbor Pastries" or "Authentic Scone".

Prices were given in ranges, and no actual varieties were listed.  The baked goods, laid out in a display case under the window, were not labelled.  So, annoying as it is, I asked what they all were, because it was not obvious.  I somehow didn't get a photo.

The top row was assorted donuts from Dynamo Donuts.  Since I actually haven't loved Dynamo in the past, it was easy to move past these, even though, OMG, donuts. 

They also had seasonal scones, cookies (chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin), and bagels from Authentic Bagel Company in Oakland, and savory pastries from Neighbor Bakehouse in the Dogpatch.

My Box Of Goodies!

I wasn't familiar with Authentic Bagel Co, as the retail store is in Oakland, but they also are a wholesale bakery, so I've likely seen their goods in other places around town, perhaps just not attributed.  They also sell their bagels and cream cheese online via Good Eggs.

Bagels are their forte, a company started in order to try to solve the ever-ending problem of lack of good bagels in the Bay Area.  I wasn't really seeking out a bagel though, so I grabbed several of each of the seasonal scones instead.

I also wasn't familiar with Neighbor Bakehouse at that time.  They had a fairly new retail store in the Dogpatch, but were also starting to be distributed around the city, and started as a wholesale bakery.  Since this visit, I had the opportunity to try more of their goodies, and, zomg, recommend.

Neighbor Bakehouse
Smoked Ham & Gruyere Morning Bun. $5.

I really wish I had taken a photo of the cross-section inside this thing!  Or a side view.  Sorry my dearest readers, I have failed you.  I know this looks like just a morning bun or croissant roll.  Which, it was, but wow, it was so much more.

The pedigree of the croissant element is not to be underestimated though.  I really should have heard of Neighbor before, as I now see that they are regularly featured in "best croissant in SF" lists.  The pastry chef taught croissant making, worked at Tartine, etc, etc.  And it shows.  The croissant was crazy flaky, crispy on the outside, moist inside.

It was coated in seeds (sesame, poppy, and sunflower).  Flaky dough and tons of seeds?  Yup, it made a ridiculous mess.  Note to self: eat this outside, not over your keyboard in the future.  Doh.

Inside was the ham (Fra'mani smoked ham) and cheese (gruyere), plus ... mustard!  I wasn't expecting mustard at all, but it made it even more savory, went perfectly with ham and cheese, and added quite the zing to it.

It was great at room temperature, but even better once I stuck it in the toaster oven for a few minutes, to make the cheese ooey gooey.

At $5 it was pricey, but, it really was a little meal in itself.  Carbs, fats, and protein?  Legit meal to me!

****+.

Authentic Bagel Co.
Apple Raisin Scone. $3.50.

These were strange looking scones.  They weren’t a shape that I’ve ever seen before for a scone.  They looked sorta more like oblong cookies (particularly given the huge sugar crystals on top).  Not triangular, not round, but, oval shaped.  Rather huge for a single person too.

They were also a strange texture, like the shape, not something I’ve had before.  Rather soft.  This style was actually nice, I appreciated the scone not being hard, but it also wasn’t cakey as often happens with softer scones.  This was was still a scone.

I wasn't particularly interested in the apple raisin scone, but I tried just a bite.  As expected it had chunks of apple and raisins.  I got it in October, and it was clearly very fall inspired, nicely seasonal, however these not my favorite ingredients.  It sorta reminded me of oatmeal.

A fine scone, just, not for me.  ***.

Authentic Bagel Co. 
Blueberry Scone. $3.50.

I moved on to the blueberry scone.

This one was much better.  I again liked the soft, but not cakey texture.  The blueberries weren’t particularly plentiful, nor juicy, so they didn’t add a ton of flavor, but the base scone was really quite good.  A bit more tang and it would have been even better.

The size was just too big to eat in one sitting though.  Perfect to split with a friend, or to have half for breakfast, and half with afternoon tea ...

***+.