At 11 a.m. on a Sunday, nearly every seat in the Clement Street wine bar High Treason is full as a vinyl DJ fills the space with downtempo electronic music. But the masses clutching bags of produce from the nearby farmers market aren’t sipping chilled reds, but rather lightly roasted Ethiopians.
Opened in 2016, High Treason is the type of locals-only haunt that gives the Richmond District its signature flavor — more laid-back than the Mission or Marina, a nonchalant type of cool that’s just far enough detached from the center of the city to feel like its own universe. The type of neighborhood that could always use one more coffee shop.
Wine crates hang behind the bar in a visually pleasing tessellating pattern, a poster of the Clash fills the back wall, and there’s a small shelf of vinyl for sale. A pair of turntables sit on the edge of the bar, with LPs by Massive Attack and De La Soul leaning precariously against the backsplash. Unco Frank’s operates out of the back kitchen, preparing Hawaiian comfort food. The space feels lived in, but not vintage — a relic of the mid-2010s that survived the pandemic by the skin of its grapes.
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The exterior of Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Bags of coffee beans available for customers at Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Customers of Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Then in 2024, Luis Gonzalez and Nathan Kruse came into the store clutching a pair of thermoses and a proposition.
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Hi NRG co-owners Nathan Kruse, left, and Luis Gonzalez behind the bar of the pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
The pair were veterans of the city’s specialty coffee circuit at that point, most recently working at one of the city’s best shops, Coffee Movement (no disrespect to Saint Frank Coffee, where Gonzalez also worked). They’d already done a few pop-ups at other wine bars, but they lived just down the street, and Gonzalez had always admired the street-facing windows near the entrance. Their pitch was to serve coffee to passersby on the sidewalk, utilizing the space while it would otherwise be closed.
“I tasted these coffees and they were amazing. So we got to talking, and I got the impression that they were sort of coffee geeks like we’re wine geeks, and it just made all the sense in the world,” said High Treason co-owner Michael Ireland.
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Gonzalez put in his two weeks’ notice the next day.
“It was a pretty big leap of faith, but it’s like truly the best decision that we’ve ever made,” Gonzalez said. “We never expected it to get like this, it’s just become such a huge thing.”
From left, Hi NRG co-owners Nathan Kruse and Luis Gonzalez with High Treason co-owner Michael Ireland at Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Luis Gonzalez grabs a pastry for a customer at Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Named Hi NRG after the 1980s dance music subgenre born in San Francisco (Gonzalez and Kruse are both DJs), the cafe specializes in lightly roasted, naturally processed Ethiopian beans from buzzy roasters like Amsterdam’s Dak Coffee Roasters. Originally, they brought in coffee equipment from home for service each day, until High Treason carved out some storage space. Much of their equipment comes from top-of-the-line retailer Fellow, but the heart of the operation is a pair of high-tech compact machines from Decent Espresso.
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“Going from this to a traditional Italian espresso machine is like going from a computer to a hammer. This is the most sophisticated, most consistent machine you could possibly have,” Gonzalez said. An attached monitor shows a graph with the water pressure profile, allowing them to dial in the machine perfectly with just one shot, thus reducing waste.
The menu at the shop is fairly Spartan, with the largest serving size being only 6 ounces. That allows the owners to keep their batch brew price at $4, whereas they say the same beans might sell for $12 as a pour-over at a similar shop. They don’t offer sugar, with the reasoning that their coffees are already naturally sweeter than most, and that steaming their milk to a perfect 120 degrees releases natural sugar flavors. They do have a couple of stylistic flourishes — a Mexican-influenced cinnamon-spiced cafe de olla and an espresso tonic, which is a favorite of regular Katrina Panovich, who comes by on most weekdays and has attended coffee cuppings at the shop.
A pour of espresso comes from an espresso machine at Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Customers hang out at Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
“I’ve been developing my palate in line with theirs, which is really fun. Very light, bright, not super roasty or burnt tasting,” she said.
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Part of what made the transition from work-for-hire baristas to coffee entrepreneurs was a business arrangement that allowed for a soft launch: Instead of charging rent, High Treason asked for a percentage of the coffee operation’s sales.
“I didn’t want to give them this dollar amount and put pressure on them that they need to make the money,” Ireland said. “I think it’s easier with the sliding scale. If they have a bad month, I don’t want them to still have to be on the hook for X amount of money.”
Now two years into the run at High Treason, Hi NRG has gotten so successful that Gonzalez and Kruse are ready to branch out to their own space (a similar story to Third Wheel Coffee, which went brick-and-mortar after a longtime pop-up in Lucinda’s Deli). Last month, Hi NRG announced that it will be packing up shop on Aug. 9 to open in its own space at 5801 Geary St., a space that formerly housed AyDea.
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“I could not imagine going straight from working at Coffee Movement to trying to open our own thing,” Gonzalez said. “The pop-up stopgap, one, allowed us to raise funds for the new spot, and two, we learned so much about what works and what doesn’t. Now I think once we do start, we’re hitting the ground running.”
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Hi NRG co-owner Luis Gonzalez, right, talks with a customer while making an espresso drink at Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Bottles of wine sit in front of a speaker at Hi NRG, a pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Hi NRG co-owners Luis Gonzalez, left, and Nathan Kruse make espresso drinks behind the bar of the pop-up coffee shop inside the wine bar High Treason on Clement Street in San Francisco, on June 3, 2026.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Beginning in mid-August, Hi NRG will operate as an all-day cafe that transitions from coffee operation to evening wine bar, with a chef serving bites like olives, cucumber salads and Szechuan nuts. True to its name, the space will be outfitted with a DJ booth, a disco ball and a serious sound system (plus espresso shots served until 11 p.m. to help lubricate the dance floor). And perhaps best of all, they won’t have to pack up the espresso machine at the end of a shift.
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“Moving it up and down on a shelf, it’s starting to wear on my back. So the idea of having our own spot where this can be just living there forever, and we just turn the lights on, and we’re ready to go, we don’t need an hour to open up — it’s going to feel amazing,” Gonzalez said.