As we posted last week Illy, the international coffee brewer, is set to bring its high-end product to the Castro (2349 Market Street). Now it seems it will have some company as San Rafael based Weaver Coffee has chosen to open its second retail coffee shop next to Fitness SF in the former digs of the Vibrant Health Vitamin Center (2301 Market Street).

SFist reported that Weaver will be attempting to insert itself into the retail slot that Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf had been hot to procure last year but faced an uphill battle squaring off against local independent coffee shops near by, corporate resistance from Peet's down the street and Castro districts newly instituted formula retail limits. Weaver's has signed a lease for the prime corner at Noe and Market giving Cafe Flore and  down the block Peet's Coffee & Tea new competition to contend with in an already saturated market. If Weaver's makes the grade and is approved by the SF Planning Commission that will bring the total number of places to get your caffeine fix on in the Castro to 14.

Weaver's is run by Peet's former Master Roaster. The company formed in 2007 and opened its first retail space in 2010 in Marin. The Castro location would mark the next step in its corporate expansion for the company as it sets itself up to brand its future under the 'Weaver' Coffee flag. Weaver's brand is billed as Artisan, hand roasted coffee. The third wave of the coffee-house experience with small, local Mom & Pop shops being first wave, mass corporate bland entities like Starbucks the second and this new, bean by bean/cup at a time, approach the third wave. Weaver hopes to distance themselves from their competition by offering product that is hand-crafted lifting coffee roasting and tea leaf combining to an art form using all their 27 years of coffee biz experience. Best of luck to them. If they make it through San Francisco's rough and tumble business approval gauntlet and do open I will still keep going to my favorite two places to get a good cup of coffee: Castro Coffee Company that has been slugging away making a great, affordable cup of joe for 23 years under the watchful eye of its small, family owners or locally owned, Spikes Coffee & Tea on 19th Street, where they've been serving a cup at a time and supporting the community since the first day they opened in 1990.