Fall into autumnal flavors at these 16 coffee shops
I recently was passing through immigration at SFO when the agent asked the standard agriculture question: “Did you buy anything overseas that you’re bringing into the U.S.?”
“Just mooncakes,” I replied.
The immigration officer looked confused. She stood up, left her station and chatted with another immigration officer. After a few minutes, she returned.
“So you’re going to have to put your moonpies through customs,” she told me.
The marshmallow-chocolate confection known as a moonpie is definitely not the same thing as a mooncake, a dense cylindrical patty often stuffed with lotus seed or red bean paste, but there was no point in correcting her.
Given that not everyone knows about mooncakes, it surprised me that Northeast chain Gregorys, which has a cafe in Palo Alto, is offering a mooncake-inspired latte as a seasonal beverage. That got me thinking: What other seasonal beverages are being offered along the Peninsula?
Turns out, it’s not just pumpkin spice lattes – find a Spiced Apricot and Vanilla Jam Shrub, Rosemary Matcha and Cafe de Olla with an Einspänner cream top at various local coffee shops.
Stay tasty,
Adrienne
Skip the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte: These 16 Peninsula coffee shops are serving up seasonal fall drinks
For many, pumpkin season is the unofficial start of fall. It’s when coffee shops advertise pumpkin spice lattes, when grocery stores are filled with pumpkin spice versions of pretty much everything and visiting pumpkin patches is the designated weekend outing.
Palo Alto gets sweeter with a new cake shop, a microroastery opens in Redwood City and Half Moon Bay’s Art & Pumpkin Festival returns
- New cake shop Topi Cakes opened Oct. 8 in Palo Alto. It sells daily cake slices and custom cakes and will eventually offer cake-making and cake-decorating classes.
- Microroastery Capuccho is soft opening Friday in the former Mini Cafe in Redwood City.
- Mademoiselle Colette recently celebrated 10 years since its founding in Menlo Park.
- Shoreline Lake café will operate as a food truck with outdoor dining while its brick-and-mortar restaurant undergoes renovation next year.
- The Los Altos Village Association is hosting its Witches & Warlocks Wine Stroll Friday from 6-9 p.m.
- The Los Altos Chamber of Commerce is hosting the inaugural Taste of Los Altos Saturday from 6-9 p.m. at the Los Altos Community Center. This ticketed event includes bites from local restaurants, wine and craft beverages and live music.
- The 53rd Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival is Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Expect more than 250 booths, “a spectacular display of Volkswagen-sized heavyweight champion pumpkins,” four stages of live music, an expert pumpkin carver, pie-eating contests and more.
- Filoli is hosting its Taste of Fall Saturday and Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. The ticketed event features a marketplace of seasonal ciders, cocktails, dishes and desserts as well as a tasting table with heritage fruits grown on-site.
- The 42nd Belmont Chocolate Fest is Saturday from 1-8 p.m. at the Congregational Church of the Peninsula.
- Coffee pop-up Shiver is celebrating its one-year anniversary at GoodThing Coffee’s new cafe in Palo Alto Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.
- Zörek in San Bruno is hosting a Cars & Coffee event Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon. Sign up here.
- San Francisco-founded chain Sidewalk Juice recently opened new locations in San Mateo and Burlingame.
Afternoon tea at By the Teashore
I’ve been to a lot of disappointing afternoon teas along the Peninsula. (Most recently, the afternoon tea at Hello Kitty Cafe, which cost $89 and served me a sandwich with a penny-sized amount of filling.)
By the Teashore, a new afternoon tea spot in Half Moon Bay, restored my faith in Peninsula afternoon tea experiences.
Located in a Victorian house, By the Teashore feels like stepping into an eccentric and loving grandmother’s home. The walls are covered with unique and interesting antique china, mirrors and paintings, and each table has a different colorful tablecloth. Even though it’s new, it feels very lived in, in the best way possible.
And while By the Teashore has an ambiance that’s absolutely Instagrammable, the restaurant has a lot of substance behind its aesthetic appearance. It’s also reasonably priced and inclusive of different dietary restrictions.
Three-tiered afternoon tea experiences range from $34-$48 per person, and all of them include bottomless tea from a selection of 15 options. They also include your choice of sandwich(es) and scone(s). And if you’re gluten-free or vegan, that’s no problem – for an extra $3, you can get a completely gluten-free or vegan afternoon tea experience. Dining with a child? A kids’ afternoon tea is just $25.
I ordered the mid-priced afternoon tea option, called the Half Moon Tea ($41). In addition to a bottomless pot of tea, it included two sandwiches, a spring mix salad with herb vinaigrette, a homemade scone (served with fruit preserves, homemade lemon curd and homemade clotted cream), mini quiche, orange wedges, macaron and a half moon-shaped lemon-lavender tea cookie.
All the food was excellent. The sandwiches (I tried all four flavors: cream cheese and cucumber, curried chicken, egg salad and roast beef-horsradish) didn’t skimp on the filling or flavor, and the salad added some freshness to an otherwise decadent experience. The quiche, macaron and lemon-lavender cookie were all delicious as well.
The homemade scones (I tried the blueberry-orange and Earl Grey) had a crispy exterior and a fluffy and moist interior with an addictive crumb topping reminiscent of a coffeecake. I loved that the scones were served with three accompaniments, particularly the clotted cream, which is a must with afternoon tea but is rarely seen in the Bay Area.
My only critique regarding By the Teashore’s afternoon tea experience is that I feel like cloth napkins are needed to match the overall aesthetic and feel – the paper napkins just felt out of place.
Make sure to check out the back of the restaurant near the bathroom and stop by the piano. Insert a quarter into the slot, and it’ll play you a merry tune with a variety of instruments hidden behind the stained-glass window on the piano.
To watch my review, follow @peninsulafoodist on Instagram.
By the Teashore, 724 Main St., Half Moon Bay; 650-713-6562, Instagram: @bytheteashore. Afternoon tea available Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with last seating at 2:30 p.m. Breakfast served Saturday and Sunday from 9-11 a.m.
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