San Francisco · United States
Ritual Coffee Roasters
Ritual Coffee Roasters is one of 6 San Francisco roasters tracked on day9, in California.
Since 2005 · Eileen Hassi Rinaldi
Overview
Eileen Hassi Rinaldi founded Ritual on Valencia Street in San Francisco's Mission District in 2005, opening the city's first brick-and-mortar cafe dedicated to third-wave specialty coffee. She started roasting on a 5kg Probat in the back of the cafe; under coffee buyer Ryan Brown, Ritual built one of the earliest relationship-based direct sourcing programs in the U.S.
Known for
- First third-wave specialty coffee bar in San Francisco (2005)
- Helped define California's lighter, Scandinavian-leaning roast style
- Independent and woman-owned — 20+ years under same founder
- Founding member of SF Made (with Mark Dwight of Rickshaw Bagworks)
- Outpost in SFO Harvey Milk Terminal 1B
Why it matters
The cafe that put San Francisco's third-wave reputation on the map and trained a generation of Bay Area baristas. Ritual is rare in third-wave for staying fully independent and woman-led across two decades while expanding into airport retail, canned coffee, and instant — without abandoning the lighter Scandinavian-influenced roast style it pioneered locally.
Production
- roaster machine
- Originally a 5kg Probat in the cafe; production roastery in SoMa
- roastery location
- SoMa, San Francisco
Café
This roaster operates a café.