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The locals rave about this cubbyhole, which opened in July 2010, and you can see why. This stretch of Mission St. has a dearth of decent coffee shops that don't serve ashy, overextracted dreck. The tiny shop offers four metal stools at a short counter at the far side of the entrance. Otherwise this place is mostly serving space behind the counter and a small area to walk inside to order. It operates as a one-man (Nabeel Silmi) coffee bar with barely anything to eat, save a few pastries and chocolate bars. But they also sell French press coffee, Hario drippers, etc. Using a three-group La Marzocco Linea, Nabeel uses Four Barrel beans to pull modest-sized shots with a mottled lighter and darker brown crema in classic brown Nuova Point cups. It's not quite the brightness bomb you might expect from 4B, but it is a strictly acidity-forward cup that's lacking some body and balance. Though that's certainly likely more the 4B coffee than how the shot is pulled. It has a good herbal pungency with some cloves and a bright molasses-like edge of sweetness.
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