Monday - Friday: 6:30am – 5pm
Saturday & Sunday: 7am – 5:30pm
Named after the 19th century Ukrainian author and philosopher Ivan Franko, Iryna Nevozhai’s Sausalito café balances Ukrainian and European coffee house influences. Pistachio and chocolate pastry cream croissants lean west while sour cherry casts an eye to the east. Toasts made with Portside Bakery sourdough, waffles with Nutella or condensed milk, and a yogurt parfait round out the menu.
“We experiment on Fridays,” says Kyiv native Nevozhai who brought Lviv native Svitlana Monastyrska onboard to craft Ukrainian delicacies such as a layered onion tart and sweet-tart apple pie. There’s talk of vareniki with sour cherry and house-baked bread but until that day comes, there’s a Ukrainian drink – espresso with steamed orange juice – ready for summer.
The coffee menu – espresso, flat white, mocha and the like – is made with San Francisco’s Hedge Coffee, chosen by Nevozhai for its medium roast style. Barista Gabriel Pizon pulls “traditional Italian-Californian” ristretto shots to make the drinks, “tapping into the bitter to bring out the sweetness,” Pizon says. The balance of bitter and sweet speaks to what Nevozhai refers to as the “Ukrainian soul of the place,” a space for community and, coming soon, poetry readings and hosted teas such as Franko might recognize from his era.
