Picture a closet-size café where everyone seems to know each other, the vibe is decidedly Parisian, and the food and coffee is the Bay Area at its best. At one of the coolest albeit smallest cafés downtown, you can share the communal table with friendly neighbors inside or sit outside and believe you’re on the terrasse of a café off the Boulevard Saint-Michel. Expertly prepared coffee from Santa Cruz’s brilliant Verve Coffee Roasters is reason enough to go. Whether you order a robust drip or lush iced coffee (among the best in town), you’ll get a sophisticated caffeine jolt. And then there’s the food. At Farm:Table the sideboard is laden with daily changing baked goods like lemon poppyseed scones and strawberry kumquat pie. Breakfast might be asparagus feta quiche or a brioche loaded with soft egg, ham, melted leeks and fennel. A recent lunchtime visit yielded pain de mie topped with creamy fromage blanc, Pink Lady apples, honey and toasted pecans; mixed baby greens in a blood orange vinaigrette; and a rustic split pea soup with hunks of Virginia ham. Cooked with care, this food makes you feel like a friend invited you into their tiny apartment in the Marais.

Iced coffee
Bread pudding
Hard boiled eggs on baguette
Meatloaf sandwich
view full menu here

While the one inside communal table next to a giant picture window is welcoming, sidewalk tables let you watch the world go by.

Biscuit Sundays are the last Sunday of every month (except April, because that’s Easter this year). On this day, the regular menu is replaced entirely by house-made biscuits topped with seasonally changing toppings—usually three or four choices.

Mon.–Fri. 7:30 AM–4 PM; Sat. 8 AM–4 PM; Sun. 8 AM–2 PM

$2.25 (espresso) to $8.50 (highest priced sandwich)