For almost two years, HI NRG has served specialty coffee to the masses as a pop-up out of a wine bar on Clement Street. It has drawn long lines on the weekends. Now, the duo behind the buzzy spot have found a permanent home, and are taking their tastes 16 blocks farther west.
The cafe’s founders and owners, Luis Gonzalez and Nathan Kruse, recently took over a lease for a storefront at 5801 Geary Blvd. on the corner with 22nd Avenue (formerly Tatarian cafe Aydea). They plan to open there in August, Gonzalez told Mission Local in an exclusive interview on Monday. They’re planning to be open from 8am to 11pm Wednesday through Sunday and, in keeping with their long-held “vision,” to serve wine alongside coffee, and host DJ sets on the weekends.
In fact, Gonzalez said, the plan is to run “more of a wine bar that just happens to serve the best coffees in the world.” They will move just after the pop-up’s second anniversary at High Treason, its current space on Clement Street.
The wine list will be small, (“much like our coffee curation,” Gonzalez said), and the music will be more of the same DJ sets and “balearic dance music” that regulars have come to expect from the cafe. And they’ll serve the same pastries as ever.
Still, this move involves a handful of pivots for the two owners, who are currently HI NRG’s only baristas: they are not only stepping away from their well-established presence on inner Clement Street, but also taking on the additional business of running their own wine bar. The new extended hours will require more staff and they are planning on a co-operative equity model for workers there.
The logistics will have to be sorted in the coming months before HI NRG’s opening day in August. Meanwhile, Gonzalez and Kruse have already devoted a lot of thought to aesthetics: Gonzalez said they’d like for it to “feel like a European-style cafe, where you can go in at noon, grab an espresso and a glass of wine, or a vermouth and soda, and just chill.”
Also on the ever-eclectic mood board: the “Hong Kong-style cafe” (Kruse has Chinese heritage); the “saloon in Guadalajara” (Gonzalez has Mexican heritage); San Francisco’s legendary House of Prime Rib; and Mission and Potrero Hill wine bars Horsies Market & Saloon, Ruby Wine Cooperative and Bar Part Time.
This move also brings the duo closer to The Coffee Movement, the influential shop on Balboa Street near 19th Avenue where Kruse and Gonzalez first earned their chops. They have a lot of respect for the connoisseurship there, Gonzalez said, and are looking to bring their own concept to the area.
“We kind of want it to be the antithesis of every modern, millennial third wave coffee shop — you know, the soft lighting and the pale wood, and the very minimal, clean, sort of sterile aesthetic. We want it to be a really fun, but well-curated collection of materials and colors that reflect who we are as people.”
In the coming months, they’ll install red velvet curtains, a stainless steel countertop bar, tube amplifiers, a disco ball and more.
The current iteration of HI NRG — a longstanding coffee residency within High Treason, with some proceeds going to that wine bar’s owner — was a stepping stone towards the move they’re now making.
“The collaboration with High Treason was incredible,” Gonzalez said. But popping up has its limitations, and involves extra work like setting up and loading out heavy machinery. So, now that they’re well poised, they’re striking out on their own.
Gonzalez hopes that the new location, far as it is from Clement Street’s heavy foot traffic, will shrink the notorious lines, draw a more “intentional”and curious customer, and perhaps deter those who “just want to grab their (cafe) de olla, take a photo of it for Instagram and then leave.”
“I think being in a bit more of a remote area, people will want to slow down, chill, talk to us, hang out, soak up the vibes, hopefully not bring their laptops,” Gonzalez said. Though they won’t ban laptops outright.
“No one brings a laptop to Bar Part Time,” he said.
Gonzalez and Kruse have their work cut out for them as they renovate and sketch out a business plan in just over two months, while continuing to run the pop-up on Clement. Gonzalez couldn’t be happier.
“Having a space of my own — where I can control the wine list, and also the music, and also have a kick-ass sound system — it’s like a dream come true for me.”
