Published Jun. 4, 2026at6:00am
The Coffee Movement (opens in new tab), one of the city’s most prestigious speciality coffee companies, is expanding with a new cafe and its most ambitious program yet.
This fall, an extension will open just 300 feet from the flagship Chinatown location. Owners Bryan Overstreet and Reef Bessette signed a 10-year lease on the former Gallery Cafe space at 1200 Mason St. and say it will be The Coffee Movement’s “forever home.” The new cafe, located across from the Cable Car Museum, will serve expanded coffee and food menus.
“It will still have the energy and essence of downtown, the snowglobe effect of San Francisco,” Overstreet says. “Like, ‘Man, is this real?’ as you sip your cappuccino with the Transamerica Building in the background.”
Bessette is leading one of the most exciting components: a slow bar and tasting menu with just four seats. He will offer an extended pour-over selection, coffee cocktails, drinks he has served in national and international competitions, and a multi-course coffee menu.
Source: Courtesy The Coffee Movement
The tasting experience reflects the reemergence of slow coffee experiences that prioritize attention to detail over convenience and speed. In Los Angeles, Endorffeine (opens in new tab) earned a nod from the James Beard Awards and has become a destination for hard-core coffee enthusiasts despite being a one-man show where wait times on weekends can reach up to 45 minutes. In San Francisco, The Wild Fox (opens in new tab) on Battery Street hosts international barista champions for ticketed tastings. Two of The Coffee Movement’s baristas, Circle Chan and Justin Lee, launched their coffee omakase pop-up Little Plum (opens in new tab) in the summer of 2024.
For those not wanting to linger, the original shop will remain open for the foreseeable future — but without single-origin offerings. It will instead serve as an outlet for locals who simply want a cup of Saint Frank-roasted house coffee.
The pastries at the new space will come from Juniper (opens in new tab), the Polk Street bakery from the team behind Saint Frank who already provide pastries to the business’s cafes. Additionally, if all goes well, Clement Street’s Breadbelly (opens in new tab) will be part of the mix, selling classics and a few items specific to The Coffee Movement.
Keiji Ashizawa, the woodworker who designed the second The Coffee Movement cafe on Balboa, will bring a dark-wood ambiance to the new cafe, for which he is also building the furniture.
It was the 2022 expansion to the Richmond that made Overstreet and Bessette sure they wanted a larger base of operations. The hours at the new cafe will likely be the same as the Chinatown shop, though they’re not ruling out extending to 6 or 8 p.m. “It’s not an extreme departure, but it’s a new look and feel,” Overstreet says. “It feels good as we mature as a business.”
The Coffee Movement Date and timeOpening fall 2026