Midtown, jolted

Caffeine, San Francisco style: Famed Bay Area coffeehouse Blue Bottle can now be experienced in Midtown.

Kind of.

The Trade Coffee & Coworking, a coworking office-space-slash-cafe, opened last week at 2220 K Street. And the cafe portion carries Blue Bottle Coffee beans, with Blue Bottle-trained baristas ready to serve you even if you don’t buy into the coworking part of the business.

The menu is sparse, but holds the requisite New Orleans-style iced coffee ($4) and Gibraltar ($3.50), which is akin to a double-shot macchiato. Though they’re not available yet, you should be able to pick up bags of Blue Bottle’s whole beans in the future there, too.

Still, it’s definitely no Blue Bottle proper. The cafe is tiny, with no space to sit except a couple of outdoor tables. And the baristas don’t—at least not yet—have the same level of skill you’d expect at any Blue Bottle outpost. The coffee is tasty, just don’t hope for any pretty designs in your foam.

The other big draw is the cafe’s pastries, sourced from Freeport Bakery. Enough said.

The cafe will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and a grand opening celebration with live music and food is planned for April 18.

In terms of the Midtown caffeine landscape, let’s keep in mind that Temple Coffee’s next location is going in a couple of doors down at the corner of K and 22nd Streets. And there’s already Old Soul Co., Old Soul at the Weatherstone and The Mill just blocks away.

New brew: Fair Oaks just nabbed a brewpub, serving up some house-made ales as well as higher-end pub food. Yes, it is indeed called Fair Oaks Brew Pub, and it officially opened last week.

Located at 7988 California Avenue, the pub is warm and inviting with brick walls and wooden tables. Most exciting is a large outdoor patio—just in time now that the weather is heating up.

Four house beers are on tap at a time plus a few guest taps, including some locals like Knee Deep.

There are also about a dozen wines available by the glass or bottle, mostly from neighboring regions such as Napa Valley, Amador County, Lake County and Lodi. For food, think trendy Neapolitan pizzas, sandwiches with sweet potato Tater Tots, salads, cured meats and cheeses.