Coffee meets Playground

A collection of SF coffeeshops with playgrounds nearby.

On weekends, my little boy and I try to give Mom a chance to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Our strategy is simple: find a good playground that has a coffeeshop within walking distance to ensure we’re both happy.

Luckily in SF there are a lot of options to choose from, so I decided to put together a list to track the best ones. I used a combination of factors, each ranked between 1–5, the lower the total score, the better.

• Coffee quality (CQ)
• Playground quality (PQ)
• Distance between the two (D)

Here’s the list ranked by score. Results are sorted by Neighborhood further down the page.

Top 10:

1. Cafe Réveille & Mission Bay’s Children’s park: 1CQ + 1PQ + 1D = 3
2. Beacon Coffee & Joe DiMaggio Playground 1CQ + 2PQ + 2D = 4
3. Flywheel Coffee & Koret Children’s Playground: 1CQ + 1PQ +3D = 5
4. Jane & Alta Plaza Park: 1CQ + 1PQ + 3D = 5
5. Precita Park Cafe & Precita Park: 2CQ + 2PQ + 1D = 5
6. The Mill & Alamo Square Playground: 1CQ + 2PQ + 3D = 6
7. Jane & Lafayette Park: 1CQ + 1PQ+ 4D = 6
8. Philz & Noe Children’s Playground: 2CQ + 3PQ + 1D = 6
9. Dolores Park Cafe + Dolores Park: 3CQ + 1PQ + 2D = 6
10. Piccino & Woods Yard Park: 1CQ + 3PQ + 2D = 6

The rest

Ritual + Mission Playground: 1CQ + 3PQ + 3D = 7
Duboce Park Cafe & Duboce Park: 2CQ + 3PQ + 2D = 7
Front & Jackson Playground: 1CQ + 3PQ + 4D = 8
Pinhole Coffee & Holly Park: 1CQ + 4PQ + 3D = 8
Reveille Coffee & Eureka Valley Park: 1CQ + 3PQ + 4D = 8
Ritual & Patricia’s Green: 1CQ + 5PQ + 2D = 8
Cafe XO & Upper Noe Playground: 4CQ + 2PQ + 2D = 8
Sightglass + Jose Coronado Playground : 1CQ + 4PQ + 3D = 8
Small Foods + South Park: 2CQ + 4PQ + 2D = 8
Tasty Coffee & Balboa Park: 4CQ + 2PQ + 3D = 9
CrossRoads Cafe + South Beach Park: 3CQ + 2PQ + 4D = 9
The Mill & Golden Gate Park Panhandle Playground: 1CQ+ 3PQ + 5D = 9
Dynamo Donuts + James Rolph Jr. Playground: 2CQ + 4PQ + 4D = 10
Thinkers Cafe & Potrero Hill Playground: 3CQ + 3PQ + 4D = 10

— — — — by Neighborhood ————

Neighborhood: Balboa Park

Tasty Coffee & Balboa Park: 4CQ + 2PQ + 3D = 9

Neighborhood: Bernal Heights

Precita Park Cafe & Precita Park: 3CQ + 2PQ + 1D = 6
Pinhole Coffee & Holly Park: 1CQ + 4PQ + 3D = 8

Neighborhood: Castro

Reveille Coffee & Eureka Valley Park: 1CQ + 3PQ + 4D = 8

Neighborhood: Dogpatch / Mission Bay

Cafe Réveille & Mission Bay’s Children’s park: 1CQ + 1PQ + 2D = 4
Piccino & Woods Yard Park: 1CQ + 3PQ + 2D = 6

Neighborhood: Haight, Duboce and Hayes Valley

Flywheel Coffee Roasters & Koret Children’s Playground 1CQ + 1PQ +3D = 5
The Mill & Alamo Square Playground: 1CQ + 2PQ + 3D = 6
Duboce Park Cafe & Duboce Park: 2CQ + 3PQ + 2D = 7
Ritual & Patricia’s Green: 1CQ + 5PQ + 2D = 8
The Mill & Golden Gate Park Panhandle Playground: 1CQ+ 3PQ + 5D = 9

Neighborhood: Mission

Dolores Park Cafe + Dolores Park: 3CQ + 1PQ + 2D = 6
Ritual + Mission Playground: 1CQ + 3PQ + 3D = 7
Sightglass + Jose Coronado Playground : 1CQ + 4PQ + 3D = 8
Dynamo Donuts + James Rolph Jr. Playground: 2CQ + 4PQ + 4D = 10

Neighborhood: Noe Valley

Philz & Noe Children’s Playground: 2CQ + 3PQ + 1D = 6
Neighbor’s Corner & Noe Children’s Playground: 1CQ + 3PQ + 3D = 7
Cafe XO & Upper Noe Playground: 4CQ + 2PQ + 2D = 8

Neighborhood: North Beach

Beacon Coffee and Pantry & Joe DiMaggio Playground 1CQ + 2PQ + 2D = 5

Neighborhood: Pacific Heights

Jane & Alta Plaza Park: 1CQ + 2PQ + 3D = 6
Jane & Lafayette Park: 1CQ + 1PQ+ 4D = 6

Neighborhood: Potrero Hill

Front & Jackson Playground: 1CQ + 2PQ + 4D = 7
Thinkers Cafe & Potrero Hill Playground: 3CQ + 3PQ + 4D = 10

Neighborhood: SoMa

CrossRoads Cafe + South Beach Park: 3CQ + 2PQ + 4D = 9
Small Foods + South Park: 2CQ + 4PQ + 2D = 8

What do you think? Any suggestions to add? Hit me up on Twitter as @kaz.

ps: Thanks for reading this far! If you got value out of this article, could you give a few claps?