Portola Coffee Roasters

Jeff and Christa Duggan are still roasting in the building, on the same U.S. Roaster Corp. Revelation that carried the operation to Roast Magazine's 2015 Micro Roaster of the Year, and the brewed menu still names single origins by process — an Ethiopia Ardi Natural next to a Panama La Milagrosa 'Mixto'. The white lab coats and the lime-green-and-bamboo counter are how the room read in its first years, and 'Lab' has since come off the name.

• A brewed single origin
• Talking shop across the counter
• A SOCO market errand
• A 7am start

Everything is roasted in-house on a U.S. Roaster Corp. Revelation — around 85,000 pounds a year by the time Roast Magazine named it 2015 Micro Roaster of the Year — and the brewed menu runs the house Alchemistic Blend at $3.50 against named single origins like Ethiopia Ardi Natural and Panama La Milagrosa 'Mixto'. The retail shelf, three bags including Incognito and Re/mix, states no origin, farm, or roast date.

The bar was built as a laboratory and meant it: a lime-green-and-bamboo island counter low enough that customers walk around it, lacquered tabletops printed with beakers and coffee plants, white lab coats under the glow of halogen heaters. The business has since shortened its name from Portola Coffee Lab to plain Portola, though a room built that literally around one idea is not an easy thing to redecorate away.