The Mill by Studio BBA
The Mill turns a café into a familiar domestic scene. In San Francisco, CA, United States, Studio BBA shapes the restaurant around the feeling of a first bright kitchen, with mixed woods, white finishes, and generous daylight. Skylights bring light across the tables, while a custom soffit concentrates it over the bakery and barista work area, keeping the room practical without losing its homey reference.
About The Mill
The Mill is a new joint venture café from the hands, hearts, and minds of Josey Baker Bread and Fourbarrel Coffee.
In the collaborative spirit that runs through much of Studio BBA’s work, The Mill comes together through a collective design and construction process. The project takes its cue from “everyone’s first San Francisco kitchen” — that bright, messy, warm room that came with a first apartment, often at the end of a long Victorian, perhaps in The Mission, and often blessed with good light even when the laundry porch blocked part of it. It is the sort of kitchen where friends gather during parties and where weekend mornings tend to linger.
A mixed palette of white oak, doug fir, and ash, paired with white-on-white finishes, reinforces that welcoming domestic feeling. Natural light filters through multiple skylights and along the ceiling beams to the café tables, then concentrates over the bakery and barista work area through a custom light soffit. Reclaimed douglas fir cabinetry and white wall tile both follow a herringbone pattern, giving the room a quiet sense of order without losing its informal character.
Photography courtesy of Studio BBA
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