Breakfast pastries at Boot and Shoe Service [Oakland]

[rworange]

The cafe opens at 7am and offers ever-changing baked goods. Today's selection included coffee cake, cherry scones, chocolate chip cookies, pistachio biscotti, croissants, frittata and probably something else I'm forgetting. There's house-made granola too.

The website doesn't mention weekday breafast offerings so i wanted to stop by and check it out

On a scale from 1 to 5

croissant - 5 stars

parsnip, potato, pepperoni, asparagus frittata - 4 stars

Regular $2 cup of coffee - god awful ... no stars for you

Good quality but no wow. The biggest plus is the price. No item including the frittata was more than $3.

Address and website

http://www.yelp.com/biz/boot-and-shoe...

[lmarie]

Did you find out the source of their pastries? - Especially the five star croissant?

[drewskiSF]

i think they are all made in house.

[rworange]

yep. baked in house

[twocents]

I think they serve (and retail) Sightglass, so definitely not your cup of tea. So to speak.

[rworange]

Yep, Sightglass. Why wouldn't I like it?

I was just thinking it happened to be a specific roast that was not to my taste ... sour and acidic ... yeah, i know that is not a coffee term but it almost burnt the lining of my throat and stomach ... or felt like that. Does it all taste like that?

I mean, for me most of blue bottle is too subtle but this was just too ... much ... of everything.

[abstractpoet]

Huh. I usually get a cappuccino, but I've had that $2 French press cup and found it to be fine -- not the best cup of coffee I've ever had, but certainly drinkable. I do tend to like the lighter roasting style (more so than you, I'm sure), but I really don't like it when coffees are too sour, and I didn't notice that being the case here. I think they use the "Blue Boon" blend.

Well, it could have just been a bad batch, or it could be that I've gotten a lot more used to acidic coffee than I realized.

[rworange]

or they might have used something different from "Blue Boon" that day. Next time i'll probably get the drip and ask the name they are using.

[poser]

"Well, it could have just been a bad batch"
Or it could be operator error. The beans are just one part of the final process. More then likely she just doesn't like that type of coffee.

[bgbc]

Sightglass -- thanks for that remark. I had no idea it was the coffee and not the barista (or me). Had it just once, on Seventh Street before their bigger space was open and it was horribly burnt and acidic tasting. And I like a range of coffee, not just the fruity light roasts.

[Robert Lauriston]

Sightglass seems like typical light-roasted fruity third-generation coffee to me. If it was burnt that was a lapse in their quality control, not a reflection of their style.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/7844...

[poser]

Burnt? How can someone complain about a coffee bean being to bright and then say it was burnt? As for brewing, Sightglass uses a pour over system and it is almost impossible the water was too hot when brewed.

[twocents]

To me, Sightglass is dead-on representative of the 3rd wave coffees that you don't care for as much as the more traditional roasters in your other coffee threads. That's all. But I confess that I don't recall if you've tried or liked them before. Not to hijack the thread but did you end up trying Bicycle coffee? I am liking their medium roast, which has good body and low acidity and they have a darker one.

[goldangl95]

I also felt this way the time I went to Sightglass (drip). BF and I assumed that maybe drip wasn't their strong suit, and we should have gotten espresso? It seemed sour and thin.

As a reference point, we really like most of the bean blends from Intelligentsia, Blue Bottle and Ritual. Are not super picky.

[rworange]

Yeah, i'm not anti third wave. I like some Blue Bottle but I can't take the attitude. Ritual was better before it expanded. i just can't deal with some of the self-importance of these roasters. it's just coffee.