Get a latte at Ritual Coffee Roasters

Ok, I get that everyone and his similarly emaciated hipster brother has been to Ritual.

Fixie at your side, laptop slung over shoulder, and scarf tied just so, you've activated your irony beacon and homed in on the Valencia Street coffeehouse hanging the takeoff--see below--on the Soviet and Chinese flags out front.


Unfortunately you can no longer take chairs outside--evidently it impedes the strollers and wheelchairs of members of the bookends of the Mission social strata--so remind the nearest art student that he doesn't need four chairs to himself and grab a place at a table.

Their lattes are delicious (and well priced) and their hot chocolate above average. On information and belief, their normal coffee is also better than most, enough so that my friend with a whiskey-ravaged stomach--who probably should avoid coffee too--wants to get one every time he's in town on a weekend morning. I'm unsure about the rest of the drinks, but I'd be willing to bet they're also quite tasty.

Bottom line: the coffee is good enough to warrant both a special trip and the hassle of pulling on your leg warmers and pushing up your sleeves so your tattoos are in full view.

(Oh, the art up for sale is usually good too.)


Ritual Coffee Roasters is located on Valencia between 21st and 22nd. It is open Mon-Fri, 6AM-10PM; Sat, 7AM-10PM; and Sun, 7AM-9PM. There is another location, with much more restricted hours, in the Bayview at 1634 Jerrold, just west of 3rd Street.

Trip on the pretty fish at 6th Avenue Aquarium

Visiting 6th Avenue Aquarium is like taking a free trip to a low-rent, DIY municipal aquarium in some Buddhist foreign country (Buddhist because of the shrine they have in the back corner sporting burning incense and takeout-boxed food items). The outside gives a good indication of what lies in store past the neon and shockingly red awning.



Once inside, there are many exotic but familiar species: Siamese fighting fish, stingray, jellyfish, seahorse, pufferfish.

Others are just exotic (or at least -sounding): true Red Terror, Armored Catfish, Leporinus, Albino Bichir, Electric Blue Jack Dempsey, Peppermint Pleco, Oscarfish, 5-star General, Well Endowed (just kidding on that last one).

Though probably not for the claustro- or icthyophobic, the place is teeming (in an extreme sense of the word) with all things piscine. If wall-to-wall tanks filled with writhing masses of fish isn't your bag, then maybe best to stay outside and have a smoke while the better half goes in and pokes around. As I overheard midway through a visit, "To live in San Francisco and have a place crammed with fish like this, you pretty much have to be Chinese and come from some super commie background."

Agree or don't, but do go before you leave. It may even be nice to have a bag o' jumbo goldfish blobbing about on your lap for the goodbye flight.


Sixth Avenue Aquarium is on Clement between 5th and 6th. It is open 7 days a week: M-F, 11AM-10PM; Sat and Sun, 10AM-10PM. For two ridiculous lists of all they carry in the way of fish, pick your poison: freshwater or saltwater.