Lady Falcon Coffee Club be rollin’ up with craft coffee in San Francisco style - and in their very own 1948 truck.
Photography courtesy of Lady Falcon Coffee Club
There’s no shortage of craft coffee beans and third-wave cafés in San Francisco (and the whole Bay Area) - if anything, people down more coffee than water here. When after your third or fourth cortado or flat white, all the coffee, cafés, and baristas with beards can start to look the same. However, there’s a new coffee shop – er, truck – in town to shake the scene up. That would be the Lady Falcon Coffee Club, a women-owned coffee company based out of a reconverted vintage 1948 GMC bread truck.
Lady Falcon? A bread truck? You’re probably wondering what this is all about. The Falcon Ladies Bicycle Club was the name of one of the abandoned streetcars on Judah Street by Ocean Beach in the 1880s. During a time where women were restricted to wearing corsets and petticoats and still didn’t have the right to vote, these women rebelled in their own way by riding bicycles. Founder Buffy Maguire (known for her decades of experience in the restaurant business and management with her husband of Java Beach Café and Beachsidein the Outer Sunset) was inspired by this story celebrating a creative community and its rebellious and free-spirited women.
“The Ocean Beach area is an eclectic, real, hearty part of the city – it’s always been a little bit in the wild. The history of the area has always intrigued me. The beach is an equalizer in our neighborhood; we’re all here because of the ocean,” Maguire says. “I wanted Lady Falcon to honor the history of the bohemians in the Outer Sunset and in particular, these women.”
Lady Falcon is a perfect example of a business going against the industry’s norms of masculinity – in a field where most barista competitions are led by men and seeing a woman compete still comes with a shock, women in coffee culture are underrepresented.
“I wanted to challenge the reputation of coffee being a male-dominated field. We aren’t quite there yet, but there’s going to be a time when women are not judged as a “female roaster”, in competitions, but just a roaster. I’m happy to shed light on this, and see younger women mentoring and leading other women in the industry – it’s fun to be that example!” Maguire adds.
So what’s serving coffee on wheels like? “Building out a 1948 GMC bread truck required some creativity!” Buffy laughs.
“We worked with a great team of craftsmen and makers in West Oakland. The operations for a truck are much different than in a café, and there’s a bigger emphasis on communicating via social media about where our truck is located for the day,” she explains. Having a mobile truck allows Lady Falcon to experience other neighborhoods in the city – “and we can bring the beans to the people!” Buffy shares.
Maguire developed her appreciation for cafés and coffee culture growing up going to coffee shops in North Beach with her grandparents, and later accumulated over 20 years of experience in the industry under her belt. So naturally, it makes sense to continue to develop new ideas and projects for herself and the community. She is working on creating a roaster/café in the Outer Sunset (permits are almost ready!), where customers will be able to see the roasting process happen while enjoying a cup of coffee. Maguire likes “sharing the process since most people don’t know how it works!”
While there are so many single-origin and blends to choose from on their site, Maguire has enjoyed making the blends that stand apart from most on the market, which are often cut with low-quality beans.
“Our blends, like ‘Around the Way,’” says Buffy, “are made from a combination of single-origin beans only,” lending a high-end and complex flavor profile, and the name is a nod to the neighborhood vibes in the Outer Sunset.
I wanted to challenge the reputation of coffee being a male-dominated field.
— Buffy Maguire
Lady Falcon Coffee Club is clearly passionate for appreciating craft coffee and all the different ways of looking at this industry – while still celebrating the roots of the neighborhood that Buffy grew up in.
You can find these ladies cruising out of the Outer Sunset to some of your favorite spots in the city: Off the Grid’s weekly Presidio Picnic, Golden Gate Park, Wise Surfboards, and Ocean Beach, to name just a few. And if you were lucky to snag tickets for Outside Lands this summer, you will find them there, too! Of course, we can’t help but be reminded of this song after learning about Lady Falcon Coffee Club.
// Follow LFCC on Instagram to see where they will be serving up brews next! You can buy their beans directly from their site or your favorite artisanal grocers and cafés like Bi-Rite, Gus’s Community Market, and Cafe St. Jorge.
