I think it's a matter of staffing. Cafes in San Francisco have a skeleton staff, particularly the ones on Valencia. It's just not economical to pay the high rent and more than one person at a time. Especially when people linger over tea & a laptop for about 5 hours.
To take an extreme example, the Muddy's cafes (near 16th and 24th) are one step away from dissolving into chaos. The people who work there seem to hate it.
RR has better coffee than average, and more foot traffic. I'm not sure why this hasn't been replicated. Maybe the beautiful people who seem to live there perform the same function as go-go dancers at clubs; they delude you into believing you're as hip as they are.
The best coffee experience in the Bay Area, as far as I know, is actually in a strip mall in Cupertino. Really!
Barefoot Coffee Roasters have many people on staff all the time, and they even hang out there in their off hours. It's got a very strong community feel and their baristas win a lot of awards. Much more laid back attitude compared to RR. I can't figure out why they haven't taken over the universe yet. Possibly they have higher staff costs, but choose to keep it like that rather than sacrifice to efficiency. That's just a guess though.
To take an extreme example, the Muddy's cafes (near 16th and 24th) are one step away from dissolving into chaos. The people who work there seem to hate it.
RR has better coffee than average, and more foot traffic. I'm not sure why this hasn't been replicated. Maybe the beautiful people who seem to live there perform the same function as go-go dancers at clubs; they delude you into believing you're as hip as they are.
The best coffee experience in the Bay Area, as far as I know, is actually in a strip mall in Cupertino. Really!
Barefoot Coffee Roasters have many people on staff all the time, and they even hang out there in their off hours. It's got a very strong community feel and their baristas win a lot of awards. Much more laid back attitude compared to RR. I can't figure out why they haven't taken over the universe yet. Possibly they have higher staff costs, but choose to keep it like that rather than sacrifice to efficiency. That's just a guess though.