Spike's Coffee & Tea, San Francisco

Sample Selections

• White chocolate mocha
• A hot cup of honey-ginseng tea
• Ham and cheese croissant

While You’re Waiting

• Check out the local artwork hanging on the walls, which gets refreshed monthly.
• Peruse the shelves, stocked with sweet treats such as chocolate chip cookies and lemon drop candies.

Inside Tips

• With no WiFi, Spike’s is utterly low-tech. Expect to do all your work offline or spend the afternoon chatting with the super-friendly staff and regulars.
• Feel free to bring your own coffee mug—many of the regulars do. Staffers likes to keep things as green as possible, recycling and composting as much as they can.
• If you can’t make it in, you can order one of their signature tea and coffee varieties by the bag on their online shop.

Vocab Lesson
Crema: The brownish foam that sits atop a good cup of espresso

While You’re in the Neighborhood
Before: Work up an appetite by hiking the Vulcan Staircase (1 Vulcan Stairway), which winds its way past some of the city’s hidden gardens and Victorian homes.

After: Commemorate your visit to Spike’s by hunting down a coffee-scented candle at ZGO (600 Castro Street)