A sleepy corner near Buena Vista Park is about to get a jolt of caffeine. Yes folks, San Francisco's own Ritual Coffee Roasters is planning a new cafe at Haight and Central, on the far eastern edge of the Upper Haight.
Inside Scoop brought first word of the coffee roaster's plans late last week, and we touched base with Ritual owner Eileen Rinaldi to learn a little more about the new location.
The storefront at 1300 Haight St. was until recently occupied by Lucky Cleaners & Laundry, which is now closed for business and on its way out. As we previously noted, the space was announced as available just two short months ago.
Rinaldi said that the plan to open a Ritual at that address came about through a landlord request. "The landlord came to us and said that they really wanted it to be a Ritual," she told us. "That happens a lot, but I just felt that there's something when you walk into it ... like, oh yeah, that should really be a cafe. It really had that quality that makes it feel right."
After consulting colleagues at Ritual, she said, "everybody was enthusiastic about it. Mostly I think it'll be a fun place to be."
The 1300 Haight location will be Ritual Coffee's second dedicated, independent storefront, after the first location at 1026 Valencia St. (its other outpost are all located within other businesses or more ad hoc, as in the case of the Hayes Valley Proxy location).
According to Rinaldi, plans for the new spot include outdoor tables and chairs to supplement a modest 850-square-foot interior and to provide a cosmopolitan cafe feel to serve the neighborhood, which Rinaldi said was a big draw in the decision to open up shop.
Part of the appeal, Rinaldi said, is that Ritual is "a San Francisco company. We'll always be a San Francisco company, and the Haight is one of those iconic San Francisco neighborhoods."
When can we expect to see the new Ritual make its debut? "If we're lucky," Rinaldi told us, "it'll be July of 2015." First, the building has to undergo renovations, and Ritual has to work through San Francisco's famously byzantine permitting process.
Stay tuned for updates on construction and scheduled opening dates as the Haight's Ritual approaches.
