Facebook’s Saint Frank café: Top drink orders, according to baristas

Classic drinks like lattes
are popular at Facebook’s Saint Frank café.
Courtesy of Cris Mendoza

• Facebook‘s Menlo Park headquarters is also
  home to a Saint Frank Coffee
  location.
• Baristas say that Facebook employees gravitate towards
  traditional beverages, like lattes.
• Facebook employees also get to enjoy a few menu items
  exclusive to Saint Frank’s Menlo Park location.

Facebook‘s Menlo Park
headquarters has its own specialty coffee joint: Saint Frank Coffee.

Saint Frank is actually a chain, with two other locations in San
Francisco. Because the Saint Frank in Menlo Park is located
within Facebook’s headquarters, it’s accessible only to employees
and guests of the tech giant.

Business Insider spoke with baristas Cris Mendoza and Jason Yeo
about what it’s like to work at Saint Frank’s Menlo Park café.
They told us about their positive interactions and close
relationships with café regulars. They also described
the coffee culture at Facebook as “classic,” “simple,” and
“traditional.”

As it turns out, Facebook employees love lattes, cappuccinos, and
cortados, according to the baristas.

Mendoza added that Saint Frank beverages tend to be bigger and
include more coffee than those at other specialty cafés. For
example, he said that most coffee spots that he’s been to in
California will add an ounce of espresso to a drink. At Saint
Frank, you’re getting two ounces.

But the amount of caffeine is too much for some frequent
customers.

“We do have a good amount of customers who will actually order
singles to kind of mitigate that,” he said.

Beyond the traditional orders, a number of other pick-me-ups have
emerged as popular options, like the Café Nico. That beverage
consists of orange, cinnamon, vanilla syrup, espresso, and
steamed milk.

“That’s been a huge hit among people who visit in the afternoons,
just because it’s short and sweet — literally and figuratively,”
Yeo said.

Mendoza cited also Saint Frank’s “creamy and great” espresso
milkshake, made with Straus organic vanilla ice cream, while Yeo
said the Nashville iced tea — sparkling iced tea with tonic water
— is also popular.

Facebook employees also are treated to nitro iced coffee — a
Menlo Park-exclusive item, thanks to the café’s kegerator.

“It comes out creamy and velvety, kind of like a Guinness Stout,”
Mendoza said of the beverage.