ENCINITAS — The first time someone orders an "Anti Bitch Serum" latte at the new Coffee Dose on Rancho Santa Fe Road, the barista does not blink. The drink is a vanilla-and-honey latte. The name is the joke. The barista's straight face is the rest of the joke.
Coffee Dose, the Southern California coffee-and-brunch brand, opened its first North County location at 160 South Rancho Santa Fe Road in March. The shop had originally been targeted for a February opening, but build-out delays — minor material issues, according to the company — pushed the launch back about a month.
What the Shop Does
The menu reads like a coffee shop trying to also be a few other things. There is a full espresso bar with the standard lineup, plus signature lattes with names that range from earnestly named to deliberately provocative. There is an organic and vegan pastry program. There are light brunch-style items. There is beer, wine, and a small cocktail menu, mostly intended for the late-afternoon crowd.
The shop also offers app-based ordering for grab-and-go customers — a pattern increasingly common among smaller chains trying to compete with Starbucks's mobile order infrastructure without giving up the boutique-cafe atmosphere.
The North County Coffee Market
Encinitas already has more coffee shops than most cities of its size. Lofty Coffee, Better Buzz, Pannikin, and a long list of independents make up a competitive landscape that does not, on the surface, appear to need a new entrant. Coffee Dose's bet is that brand identity — the irreverent menu names, the merch, the social-media-friendly aesthetic — will carve out a customer base the more design-restrained local shops are not pursuing.
Whether that bet pays off is, in the language of business journalism, an empirical question. The shop is open. Customers are walking in. The straight-faced baristas are taking orders.
Sources: Coffee Dose press materials; Eater San Diego.