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San Francisco, CA

Union Street’s Newest Coffee Shop Is So Massive You Can Park a Car Inside

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Union Street’s Newest Coffee Shop Is So Massive You Can Park a Car Inside


The aroma of coffee greets visitors of Motoring Coffee, but if it’s your first trek to 1525 Union Street, you’ll likely be too distracted to notice. Instead, your attention will be focused on the most unlikely component of an everyday coffee shop: a 1986 Porsche 911 in that iconic Guards Red color. Peek past the Porsche and you’ll find a six-person communal work table balanced on the bed of a 1998 Honda Acty K truck.

Welcome to San Francisco’s new cafe celebrating classic cars and excellent coffee.

The new 2,000-square-foot cafe is the second location of the Los Angeles-based Motoring Club, founded in 2019 by owner Michael Rapetti. It’s part coffee shop, part private club — more on that later — with a space made for working, hanging out, ogling cars, and snacks. “We started as a car storage business and a social club for car enthusiasts,” Rapetti says. “And then we’ve evolved over the years into still having those elements, but also adding coffee and retail and bringing in a more public aspect.”

For coffee, the team works with Coffee Manufactory out of Los Angeles, but more recently they’re going beyond the typical offerings. Rapetti says they’re finetuning where their beans come from and sourcing from new farms and contacts, creating blends that resonate with their customers in Los Angeles (and now San Francisco) but roasted by Manufactory. Beyond the typical offerings of drip, espressos, flat whites, and lattes, the cafe will also have some specialty coffee drinks on hand, such as the popular Burnt Rubber, a cold brew drink with black sesame syrup and activated charcoal with foam on top, plus a dash of black sesame seeds that look like the tread of a tire. Motoring will also have a matcha program through a partnership with Nekohama Matcha in Los Angeles. Beyond that, Motoring makes its syrups in-house and organic, and additionally, alt-milk fanatics will appreciate that there is no upcharge on swapping to, say, almond or oat milk.

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On the food side, the cafe is partnering with Saltwater Bakeshop, bringing a slate of morning pastries to the shop. Expect butter croissants, ham and cheese croissants, cinnamon twists, muffins, scones, and more, from the pop-up, a nice preview to the upcoming bakery from Saltwater slated for later this year. A breakfast sandwich from Saltwater is also in the works, as is a fridge for grab-and-go options such as overnight oats, parfaits, salads, and sandwiches. Besides the coffee and food, there’s a retail section for Motoring Coffee cups and beans, but also branded clothing and a vintage jacket section sourced by Rapetti, such as a sleek Benihana Racing jacket. The plants around the cafe are also for sale, as is the car up front — if you’re determined enough, and have pockets deep enough — which will rotate throughout the year and include cars such as a Red Bull F1 racing car or classic Alfa Romeos. The price of the car is denoted by a cheeky line on the cafe menu, which currently reads “1986 Porsche 911 — MP” denoting a Market Price for the car.

But past the Porsche and Honda truck, at the back of the cafe visitors will see a glass wall and doors that serve as the entrance to the private membership component of Motoring Coffee. To be clear, membership is unnecessary for enjoying the massive cafe space up front with its fast chargers and Wi-Fi, but behind the doors is a larger lounge area to co-work in and more cars to geek out over, such as an out-of-commission vintage Rolls Royce limousine kitted out as a meeting room. It’s worth noting that potential members can’t just show up and demand a tour — someone does need to run the coffee counter, after all — but all of that can be worked out through an inquiry on the Motoring Club website.

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The interior of Motoring Coffee in San Francisco

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The cafe and car components of Motoring Club bring together a community that Rapetti has long sought out. As an “aspiring car enthusiast” who doesn’t yet own a big collection of cars, he wanted to create an accessible space and club that doesn’t require, say, a Lamborghini or Ferrari to join. The club is for a younger demographic with an appreciation for classic cars, but also, in the grander scheme of things, the cafe creates a community space for car enthusiasts in San Francisco. In that vein of community, Rapetti says they also plan to hold quarterly markets with vendors and pop-ups where they open up the entire space to the public; they’ll also project F1 races and other car events in the cafe, to change things up for visitors.

As a resident of San Francisco from 2009 to 2015, Rapetti says he always wanted a community like this, but it didn’t exist. Now he’s creating that group himself. “We’re hoping to bring some new energy and new community to what I think is already such a great vibrant neighborhood, in the city that I’m excited to be back in,” Rapetti says.

Motoring Coffee (1525 Union Street) is now open daily, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with extended hours coming soon. For more details on Motoring Club and private membership can head to motoringclub.com/sanfrancisco.

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The exterior of Motoring Coffee in San Francisco



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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco eyes new pickleball court sites

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San Francisco eyes new pickleball court sites


As pickleball popularity grows, so does the demand for courts – and the debate over the sport’s noise factor.

NBC Bay Area’s Sergio Quintana shows us how San Francisco is trying to meet the demand without upsetting residents in the video report above.



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San Francisco, CA

Skaters push back as San Francisco plans to demolish iconic Vaillancourt Fountain

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Skaters push back as San Francisco plans to demolish iconic Vaillancourt Fountain


A growing group of skaters is pushing to preserve the Vaillancourt Fountain after the City of San Francisco announced a multimillion-dollar renovation plan that would remove the structure made of concrete square pipes.

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Zeke McGuire started skating at the age of 10, and he grew up skating at the plaza and near the fountain.

“To see it go would be devastating,” McGuire stated. “I’ve been coming here my whole life. I’ve skated those stairs. I’ve been injured on those stairs.”

He’s skated on every inch of the Plaza, including the ledges of the Vaillancourt Fountain, which was completed in 1971. It’s impossible to miss, with its boxy concrete tubes that stand about 40 feet high.

It’s been the backdrop of more skateboard videos than anyone could count.

“It’s extremely awesome,” McGuire said. “There’s people all across the world that come to San Francisco to skate here specifically. So for it to be gone, people would come here to visit and it wouldn’t be here anymore, so I would say get it in before it’s gone.”

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San Francisco Recreation and Parks announced the Embarcadero Plaza Renovation Project last year. It is a plan to construct a new waterfront park, which would tear down the structure.

Tamara Barak Aparton with Rec and Parks says that after years of deterioration, the fountain is unsafe.

“The structure is unstable,” Barak Aparton stated. “Hazardous materials are present, and we can’t allow the public access to a space that poses safety risks.”

Historical preservationists, landscape architects, and skate enthusiasts, like Bay Area professional skateboarder Karl Watson, are now pushing back and saying it’s a part of that sport’s history in San Francisco.

“A beautiful monstrosity that needs to stay,” said Watson, describing the fountain.

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He says except for a few exceptions, people didn’t skate into the fountain, just around it.

“The fountain was integral for when we were tired after skating, we needed a place to relax and just enjoy the water flowing and the fountain definitely did that for us,” Watson said.

Now, the fountain is stagnant. The water stopped flowing years ago. In June 2025, it was fenced off.

Feldman was disappointed to see it like this.

“I came down here last week just to see the fencing and I was like ‘oh, they really don’t want us skating here anymore’,” Feldman explained.

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In August, the Recreation and Parks department formally requested permission to remove the fountain from the city’s Civic Art Collection.

But McGuire is hoping people like Watson, and the artist keep fighting. Armand Vaillancourt’s lawyer recently sent a letter to multiple city departments demanding the city cease and desist all efforts to remove his work.

No final decision has been made yet, but if it does go, McGuire hopes they’ll leave something.

“Even if it was to be fully demolished, I think it would be really nice if they kept a little bit of something,” McGuire said. “Or maybe make a part for people to skate.”

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San Francisco, CA

Laver Cup to make San Francisco debut at Chase Center

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Laver Cup to make San Francisco debut at Chase Center


San Francisco is set to host the 2025 Laver Cup at Chase Center from September 19 to 21, marking the first-ever tennis tournament held at the arena and the return of major men’s pro tennis to the city in over a decade. Steve Zacks, CEO of the Laver Cup, says this event showcases tennis like fans have never seen before, featuring a unique team format created by Roger Federer.



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