For many residents of the eastern half of San Francisco, the Outer Richmond might as well be another city. The public transit commute downtown from this far-flung coastal neighborhood takes longer than that from Oakland, and the district's laid-back atmosphere — if it weren't for the extraordinary number of good Chinese restaurants — might fool you into thinking you were in a Northern California beach town instead of a big city. This is, of course, the Outer Richmond's charm, and few establishments embody it as well as Simple Pleasures Cafe. A coffee shop adjacent to a coffee-roasting house of the same name, Simple Pleasures is the kind of takes-all-kinds neighborhood hangout that is, well, a simply pleasurable place to sit and have a cup of joe. Whole beans go for $9.99 per pound, but the real Simple Pleasures experience consists of installing yourself at a table or sofa on a foggy Outer Richmond morning, sipping java, and reading a newspaper as you overhear local surfers talking about the day's waves.