Saint Frank Coffee

Overview

Kevin Bohlin — a former middle school teacher from northern Texas with a background in theology and cultural anthropology — moved to San Francisco in 2010, took a barista job at Ritual Coffee on Valencia Street, and traveled to origin with Ritual's green buyer Steve Ford before launching Saint Frank as an outdoor pop-up in summer 2013. The Russian Hill brick-and-mortar at 2340 Polk Street opened that fall; for several years Saint Frank used Ritual's roasting capacity for exclusive roasts before bringing roasting fully in-house at its own Mission Street roastery.

Known for

• Producer-focused, light-roasted style anchored to direct relationships in Nepal, Thailand, Bolivia, East Africa and Central America
• Russian Hill flagship cafe widely cited as among San Francisco's best espresso bars
• Sister cafe St. Clare and a cafe inside Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters (2016)
• Name is shorthand for San Francisco — a tribute to Saint Francis of Assisi's appreciation for the small and overlooked
• Connection to nonprofits in producer countries (including a Nepal anti-trafficking partnership)

Why it matters

Saint Frank is one of the highest-profile examples of a Ritual Coffee alum spinning off a successful independent brand, and its focus on emerging coffee-growing regions like Nepal and Thailand — rather than the standard third-wave Latin America/East Africa rotation — sits unusually far up the curiosity curve for a US specialty roaster of its size.

Production

destoning

null

head roaster

null

color sorting

null

roaster machine

null

filter equipment

null

cupping frequency

null

roastery location

Mission Street, San Francisco

espresso equipment

null

annual volume tonnes

null

Café

2340 Polk Street, San Francisco (Russian Hill flagship); St. Clare cafe (San Francisco); Facebook Menlo Park (private cafe, 2016); Alma Street Menlo Park (2019)

Sources

• https://www.saintfrankcoffee.com/pages/our-story
• https://foodgps.com/interview-saint-frank-coffee-kevin-bohlin/
• https://hoodline.com/2016/04/kevin-bohlin-of-st-frank-coffee-talks-origins-new-store/
• https://www.timeout.com/san-francisco/restaurants/saint-frank-coffee
• https://www.paloaltoonline.com/blogs/2019/08/20/san-franciscos-saint-frank-coffee-comes-to-menlo-park/