(Condo construction along Columbia St. in Little Italy)
Bert and I had a few hours free this morning since TC was at a sports event which we would later attend...
I read that Encinitas based roaster, Lofty Coffee had just opened this past Thursday in Little Italy...
On googlemaps, when you enter Lofty Coffee's address, the old building pops up, a small white structure that read International Union of Operating Engineers Local Union 501. Looks like they moved offices to the Miramar area (address was at Dowdy Drive).
The Little Italy Mercato was setting up shop on the Cedar and Columbia block.
There is a covered seating area. The walls are all glass from floor to ceiling. You can view the bakers making pastries through the windows if you wish. Since we were going to have breakfast somewhere else later, we chose just one pastry to share, the macadamia nut and peach croissant to go with our cortado and mocha.
Everyone was so friendly here. One of the male baristas complimented me on my purse, the Tokidoki collab wth Jujube (in my favorite style, the Hobobe), print pattern Kaiju City. When I mentioned the print pattern, he got really excited and wondered if the references was from the movie, "Pacific Rim". When he saw the print pattern (lots of mini Godzilla-like monsters destroying cities), he was amused. The Japanese word 'kaiju' translates to 'strange beast' ; it is also a film genre that features monsters attacking cities.
They also serve food here; we will have to do a return visit to try some of their savory items in the near future.
View of the Firehouse Museum from the walkway ramp.
Lots of seating for groups as well as tables for two (not shown but they are there).
Up the walkway is their public bathroom. So far, nice and clean.
Our drinks which they brought out to us which I'm glad they did because if I tried walking from the counter to our table with these drinks, I would have spilled or shaken it.
My cortado came with a side of sparkling water Our pastry was just beckoning to us to eat it.
Now from the other side.
Yes, I made sure to get the happy dog in the shot with Bert's dark chocolate mocha. By the way, they tack on $1.00 for substitute milks, which is kind of pricy.
Bert's latte art was nice. Mine, not so much.
My cortado was okay, but not as smooth as I'm used to. I stuck with regular milk and I'm hoping it doesn't...do anything to me later, heh.
The halved and filled macadamia nut and peach croissant was sprinkled with powdered sugar. The croissant itself was delicious; the flavor combination was quite unique. It's good to see croissants getting changed up down here in San Diego instead of the regular plain, chocolate or almond.
The market wasn't quite yet ready. We don't really shop this market. We got here early enough to find a stretch of Columbia St. that ISN'T metered. We got so lucky. There were lots of available meters but we scored with a free spot, next to a house that had banana trees in their front yard.
We didn't stick around too long here. It was time to have some breakfast...
Who else went to Lofty?
Kirbie visited after lunch today.
[Update - 2/23/17 ---Kirbie's post is now up.]
Articles:
"Lofty Coffee Co. building all-day eatery in Little Italy" SD Eater, Sept. 14, 2016
"Lofty Coffee Co. makes welcome landing in Little Italy" SD Eater, Feb. 8, 2016
Lofty Coffee Cafe and Bakery, Little Italy
444 W. Cedar St.
San Diego, CA 92101
(760) 230-6747
loftycoffee.com/fb page + reviews from you know where (only 4 for now)
It's great to have another coffee option in Little Italy. They are definitely not short of choices which include James, Bird Rock, Influx, Caffe Italia and Heartsleeves. This place is certainly dog friendly, we saw so many cute dogs this morning at Lofty, although that seemingly friendly yellow lab barked at me when I was walking back from the bathroom. Yikes. I hope they offer other interesting flavor combos for their croissants.
2 comments:
Aw,sad art for your cortado. I was surprised by the prices for the various milk substiutions. The croissants looked really good and I like the unique flavors.
Yes, it seemed so... :( I think $1 is steep for a milk sub. I had regular in mine but Bert's drink ended up being $6 because he had almond milk in it. I am interested in trying their other pastries in due time. Looking forward to your post.
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