The Mission’s New GRAND COFFEE
Grand’s menu
Grand Coffee, 2663 Mission Street (at 23rd), 415-206-1238 – My favorite new coffee spot in a city rife with them? Grand Coffee in the Mission (the neighborhood that sickeningly gets all the great coffee… well, SoMa follows close on its heels). Owner Nabeel Silmi is works hard all day, every day behind the counter, creating a fine cappuccino or cup of Four Barrel coffee from his three-group paddle La Marzocco Linea. Besides refined coffee basics, Silmi has a couple specials not found elsewhere in town.
Silmi shakes up an iced coffee
A Liquid Affogato presents itself like a layered Pousse Cafe, with Four Barrel espresso, cane syrup, and Clover half and half. You can also order it shaken, cocktail-style as a refreshing Iced Coffee/Shakerato.
My NY egg cream cravings are satiated (not an easy accomplishment in this town), with Silmi’s Brooklyn Egg Cream ($2.75), a glass first drizzled with Fox’s U-bet chocolate syrup, followed by milk, then seltzer water, culminating into frothy refreshment.
COCKTAILS
Encanto Pisco
Cantina, Downtown – Those who know me know one of my go-to cocktails is the Negroni. The perfect aperitif and a favorite because of Campari‘s bitter crispness balanced with gin, my typically adventurous palate has seen no reason to vary from the simple, traditional, already perfect recipe.
Duggan McDonnell at Cantina showed me another way… and it is as revelatory as a classic Negroni. He replaced gin with pisco for a Pisco Negroni (ask for it!) It’s lush, almost caramel-y with his lovely Encanto Pisco and that favored bitter tart of Campari still shining through.