Head to fog-shrouded San Francisco’s Outer Sunset and there you'll find the best coffee in the city at the Andytown café with, of course, an Andytown man behind the counter.
West Belfast born and California chilled, Mickey now has 11 cafés in the Andytown empire with dozens more outlets and coffee houses using his distinct, roasted coffee blends.
Fresh from a 36-hour journey to Ethiopia and ensconced in the Arizona café on the Andytown Road in his native West Belfast, he explains the trip was about securing the future of supply in a rapidly shifting coffee world .
“I wasn’t even sure why I was going at first,” he says with a grin, recalling the invitation to attend the African Fine Coffee Association exposition in Addis Ababa. “But everything started lining up.”
Coffee, he notes, was born in Ethiopia. There are thousands of undocumented heirloom varietals still growing wild there. For Mickey, visiting origin countries from Central America to Africa is a matter of respect.
In Gambella, near the South Sudan border, he encountered a markedly different cup profile — medium-bodied, intense, “super fantastic,” as he describes it. The purpose was not merely to buy but to build trust.
He credits his upbringing in West Belfast — “growing up in Andytown” — for shaping that approach. Where some buyers focus only on price, he leans into conversation.
What began as a modest neighborhood café has grown into one of San Francisco’s most-loved specialty coffee operations. Alongside his American wife, Lauren — the strategic force behind the expansion — Mickey has helped build a company that now includes 11 cafés, a dedicated roastery, wholesale and grocery operations, and white-label partnerships reaching across the United States — including a partnership with the Dead Rabbit in New York where North Belfast man Jack McGarry is at the taps.
Leaving a chaotic life in Belfast was not easy and it took him nearly a decade to return after emigrating. When he did, he found himself tense, alert, almost braced for confrontation. Over time, that edge softened.
A-TEAM: Mickey McCrory in his Andytown café in San Francisco's Sunset district
Now he's back where his famous brand was born — not in a modish ad agency but at the Andersonstown Leisure Centre where the famous 'A' used to watch over the West. When the old Andytown Leisure Centre was being demolished, he dispatched his mum down to tell workers not to skip the sign. Later, pals cut the landmark 'A' in half and shipped it on pallets to San Francisco where the it now adorns the ceiling of the eponymous eatery in the Outer Sunset, last remaining stronghold of the Irish in the Golden Gate City.
“I remember drinking under that sign,” he says. “I remember fighting under that sign.” Now he shifts cups of coffee under it.
California may have crowned him a coffee king. But in spirit — and on the sign above the door — he is still on the Andytown beat.
