"In a spacious room with a dark wood bar, a Chemex sits in front of two guests debating San Francisco’s district attorney. By the time the Guatemalan single-origin coffee filters into the glass basin, the conversation has evolved into a rousing discussion about social and political life in the city. A space designed to facilitate meaningful conversation over craft coffee is no accident: it’s the culmination of more than a decade of work from Nabeel Silmi, Kimberly Kim, and Adrian Lopez. With their newest venture Grand Coffee Too, the owners incorporate their cultures and histories into both the space and menu. The misugaru, a fermented drink of ginger, jujube, and cinnamon pays homage to Kim’s Korean heritage, while the “mexigaru,” full of pepitas and chocolate, incorporates Lopez’s Mexican roots into the same drink. Silmi, Kim, and Lopez also support other coffee entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations; they supplied free beans to Deathless Coffee in the pop-up’s early days, host latte art throwdowns, and donate $1 from every bag of La Llave coffee to the Middle East Children’s Alliance, a nod to Silmi’s Palestinian ancestry. And the quality of the coffee is never compromised. Roasts tend to run medium and light, with a lovely note of milk chocolate in each cup." - Eater Staff
