Bear Coast Coffee

Bags carry farm, altitude, varietal and process (a washed Peru out of Cajamarca, an Ethiopia Guji from the Sewda Washing Station), while the drink menu has no pour-over, no origin language on it at all and an unnamed Signature blend on espresso. At the bar the care goes into the syrups and a daily almond milk of almonds, water and dates.

The shop claims coffee 'Sourced Globally & Roasted Locally in San Clemente,' and the retail line reads that way (the La Cima washed Peru lists Cajamarca provinces and five varietals, the Ethiopia Guji names the Sewda Washing Station), though no product page prints a roast date. In the pop-up years the counter poured 49th Parallel and Intelligentsia, and the shop has never said when it started roasting its own.

The bar runs espresso and batch drip on the unnamed-origin Signature blend, with no pour-over or manual brew on the floor despite one sitting in the 2015 equipment plan. It does make its own flavor syrups, lavender caramel and nutmeg vanilla among them, plus fresh daily almond milk, and runs free customer-led cuppings through the Bear Coast Roasties program.

The shop sits at 618 1/2 Avenida Victoria, looking straight at the San Clemente Pier, and it is built to stay open to that: storefront windows that push back for airflow, the seating pulled forward for the view. Bear Coast spent its first two years as a pop-up inside The Cellar on Avenida Del Mar, where the counter was too tight to brew anything but batch, and this room is the permanent answer to that.

• Across from the pier
• Open storefront
• Ocean view