Ikon Coffee

Ikon Roastery Is Bringing High-Caliber Espresso Drinks and Bolivian Cuñapés to the Dogpatch | Eater SF

"Marcel Costas’s South San Francisco roaster Ikon Coffee is coming to San Francisco for good: I learned the co-owner will open a second Dogpatch location at the end of December, occupying the first floor of the new Knox Landing condo complex on the corner of 22nd and Mississippi streets — about two blocks from the Caltrain station — and the opening is listed at 645 Texas Street. Assistant general manager Alex Le says drink options will join the usual coffee menu, including the company’s Especiale line of espresso-roasted beans; for this well-roasted Especiale shot customers will pay between $5 and $7, and Le promises, “It’ll be the best shot of espresso you’ve ever had.” The menu is still being finalized, but the team wants to experiment with coffee mocktails — plays on familiar cocktails like an espresso old fashioned — available for dine-in only. A small kitchen will offer breakfast sandwiches, and Costas (whose family is Bolivian) is hoping to add pan de queso, or cuñapés, including a prototype riff on a large pan de queso that doubles as Ikon’s take on the San Francisco bread bowl, described as the owner’s take on being in this city as immigrants. Ikon has focused on roasting and farmers’ markets, and during the pandemic Costas and Le built a speakeasy-style cafe out of the roastery to serve blue-collar mechanics and electricians who had been drinking Starbucks and Peet’s; roaster Cameron Beliso is part of the team. The Dogpatch space is almost entirely exterior-facing with lots of windows, a bar inside and outside, and the team is finishing final details like windows and roll-up doors, all while sticking to their coffee program to show the neighborhood what specialty can be — even as customers in Carhartts comment, “I think it’s Colombian, there’s a little citrus.” Ikon Roastery opens at 645 Texas Street at the end of December with temporary hours before a grand opening in January." - Paolo Bicchieri