We’re exploring and documenting the interior decor and style of a few of our favorite third-wave coffee shops in a series of posts. These are cafes we frequent in Southern California that bring a higher level of aesthetic taste to their spaces, adding to their already high-quality coffee-making game.
We start in this post with SUR Coffee in San Clemente, California. The cafe opened a couple of years ago during the pandemic and filled a huge void in the local coffee scene. They are the best coffee in the hood, hands down, not to mention the coolest, most laidback space to drink coffee in this beach town.
San Clemente is near several famous world-class surf spots and as such is a surfing mecca. The cafe’s decor reflects this with the somewhat cliched surfboard mounted on the wall as art and a beautifully conceived and painted mural of a surfer.
The espresso here is A-plus. SUR roasts their own coffee beans with a small roastery in the back of the shop. Framed surf-themed photography decorates a long wall, leafy plants dot the space, and bags of coffee beans are lined up and stacked on the floor throughout.
GLOBAL GRAPHICA 