Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Source-Sipping in Barrio Logan, Organic Coffee Capital!

I’m sitting under a lone yellow umbrella on the sidewalk outside this 100-year-old brick building on National Avenue. Mmm. Sipping an Italian Roast coffee ($1.75). A vertical coffee-colored “Coffee” flag flutters next to me. You wouldn't know it, but Barrio Logan's becoming the Organic Coffee Capital of the South. Ryan Brothers is just a block up, Café Moto's further down National, and now – new for me – Café Virtuoso, right here at 1616. I’ve seen them for years at farmers’ markets, but this is their lair, where the roasting smells waft.

Now they’ve set up a little café inside, around all the open coffee bean sacks, and their roasters. I swear, it’s source-sipping, like drinking a beer right next to the brewing kettles at Mission Brewery around the corner.

“We didn’t want to do a café,” says Laurie Britton. She’s one of the partners here. “But the neighbors begged us to.” That was a year ago. With the help of Yelp, Twitter etc, just like with the local breweries, they built it and the coffee purists came, where they know it’s 80 percent Fair Trade, and 100 percent organic.

And 100 percent delicious. I’m gluggin' mine down with a cranberry muffin ($2), chatting with the other owner with the aristocratic-sounding name, Stephan vonKolkow, and his marketing guy Rigo Hernández. You never come here without getting into good jawboning about shade growing, the evils of monocrop coffees, farmers’ rights, the whole organic coffee cause.

Plus we’re only a block or two from 12th and Imperial transit center. But also, it’s nice to feel like the Lone Range-Coffee Ranger: Right now, I’m the only person under the only umbrella on the entire street. Pictures below: The Lone-Table Cafe (more tables inside); The scoop: Rigo grabs some Guatemala; muffin's eye view of National Avenue.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Woodpeckers are stocking away acorns, Amorous tarantulas

Stunning sycamores, Mars rising

I’m sitting under a lone yellow umbrella on the sidewalk outside this 100-year-old brick building on National Avenue. Mmm. Sipping an Italian Roast coffee ($1.75). A vertical coffee-colored “Coffee” flag flutters next to me. You wouldn't know it, but Barrio Logan's becoming the Organic Coffee Capital of the South. Ryan Brothers is just a block up, Café Moto's further down National, and now – new for me – Café Virtuoso, right here at 1616. I’ve seen them for years at farmers’ markets, but this is their lair, where the roasting smells waft.

Now they’ve set up a little café inside, around all the open coffee bean sacks, and their roasters. I swear, it’s source-sipping, like drinking a beer right next to the brewing kettles at Mission Brewery around the corner.

“We didn’t want to do a café,” says Laurie Britton. She’s one of the partners here. “But the neighbors begged us to.” That was a year ago. With the help of Yelp, Twitter etc, just like with the local breweries, they built it and the coffee purists came, where they know it’s 80 percent Fair Trade, and 100 percent organic.

And 100 percent delicious. I’m gluggin' mine down with a cranberry muffin ($2), chatting with the other owner with the aristocratic-sounding name, Stephan vonKolkow, and his marketing guy Rigo Hernández. You never come here without getting into good jawboning about shade growing, the evils of monocrop coffees, farmers’ rights, the whole organic coffee cause.

Plus we’re only a block or two from 12th and Imperial transit center. But also, it’s nice to feel like the Lone Range-Coffee Ranger: Right now, I’m the only person under the only umbrella on the entire street. Pictures below: The Lone-Table Cafe (more tables inside); The scoop: Rigo grabs some Guatemala; muffin's eye view of National Avenue.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

In the Barrio: Breakfast Bagel at Ellie’s Deli

Next Article

The Port of San Diego?

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader