- Facebook's Menlo Park campus has its own Saint Frank Coffee location.
- Saint Frank Coffee is a San Francisco-based specialty coffee business.
- Business Insider spoke to two Saint Frank baristas about what it's like to work at the Menlo Park café.
Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters serves up some delectable— and free — meals for its employees.
But a good number of Facebook employees don't opt for a free cup of coffee in the morning. Instead, they head to Saint Frank Coffee, a café nestled on the border of Zone 3 and Zone 4 in MPK 20.
Saint Frank Coffee is a specialty coffee chain that operates two other locations in San Francisco. It's even got a daughter venture: St. Clare Coffee. On Yelp, the chain's Russian Hill location's price range is listed as "under $10," while its SoMa roastery's price range is listed as "moderate."
According to barista Cris Mendoza, Saint Frank was initially supposed to just operate a cart on Facebook's lush rooftop park. But in July 2016, Saint Frank opened up a new location in the belly of the tech company. As a result, the Menlo Park Saint Frank location is only accessible to Facebook employees and their guests.
Business Insider spoke with Mendoza and his fellow barista Jason Yeo about what it's like to work at Saint Frank's Menlo Park café.
Here's what they had to say:
SEE ALSO: A day in the life of a product manager at Facebook
DON'T MISS: A day in the life of an executive at Facebook, the best place to work in America
SEE ALSO: What it's REALLY like to work at Facebook
Facebook and Saint Frank share more than a location.
Facebook may be a tech powerhouse and Saint Frank may focus on crafting high quality coffees, but the two entities have a few things in common in terms of their stated company values.
Facebook's mission statement is to "bring the world closer together." Saint Frank, on the other hand, is named for both its hometown of San Francisco, and St. Francis of Assisi.
"Saint Francis had a passion for life and connection with people and the world around him in a way that shapes our direction in coffee and service," the company's website reads.
Mendoza said that Saint Frank Coffee founder and owner Kevin Bohlin is drawn to the writings of St. Francis, namely "the idea that everybody has value, everybody matters." He said that everything about Saint Frank is built to reflect that philosophy. He said that Saint Frank works to forge close relationships with its coffee producers in Guatemala, Honduras, and Kenya.
"We want to value the people in every aspect of the supply chain within coffee," Yeo told Business Insider. "That means honoring the farmers who put in a lot of hard, labor-intensive work toward the product that they're producing for us."
Mendoza said the coffee business operates with the goal of "making this huge world smaller in little ways"— like sharing a cup of coffee.
Facebook employees order between 350 and 450 drinks a day at Saint Frank.
Saint Frank is open every week day from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Baristas have three shifts to choose between: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The line typically swells in the morning, as Facebook employees swing by to grab their daily pick-me-up. Facebook product manager Merlyn Deng previously told Business Insider that she always makes a pit stop at Saint Frank.
"It's the best coffee that you'll get in Menlo Park," she told Business Insider.
After lunch, more people convene by Saint Frank for small or one-on-one meetings and interviews.
"People like to come here because it feels like you're not quite at work," Mendoza said. "It feels a little bit separate from that."
Tuesdays and Thursdays are usually packed. Wednesdays are quieter, thanks to Facebook's tradition of allowing "work from home"Wednesdays. Mendoza said that the team fixes anywhere between 350 to 450 drinks on an average day.
Saint Frank handles orders a bit like Chipotle.
Saint Frank's Menlo Park location isn't the biggest café — but Mendoza said it's one of the fastest of its size.
He said that he's seen three Saint Frank baristas "crush" 25-person lines "in less than 14 minutes."
According to Mendoza, the secret ingredients are teamwork and a well-designed café.
"When I go to other cafes, a lot of times they'll have someone on the register — taking money, greeting customers, and ringing stuff up," he said. "Here, everybody's hands are involved in making the drink. You don't have someone just standing there. We maximize staffing and efficiency."
Saint Frank doesn't hand out tickets, either.
"You don't order at the register, have someone ring you up and walk away," Mendoza said. "You kind of hang out for the whole process."
Mendoza and Yeo both said that the process is a bit more humanizing for both the barista and the customer.
"We have a company saying: 'We don't serve coffee, we serve people,'" Yeo said.
But Mendoza said this specialized attention to each order doesn't slow things down.
"Some people are like, 'Wow, that was really fast. I love your guys' ordering process. It's very efficient,'" he added. "I joke around with them, 'Yeah, it's kind of like Chipotle, right?'"
See the rest of the story at Business Insider