We somehow don’t seem to have much of a legitimate coffee shop thread, which seems like a collective oversight? Anyway, in NELA news, I tried Loquat for the first time, which is an offshoot of the ever popular Kumquat. It’s a kinda weird situation over there, though. The shop is in this beautiful old building in Cypress Park–and I don’t mean to start a riproaring gentrification discussion but to charge $5 for a cortado in that neck of the woods feels umm much worse than whatever Dunsmoor is doing! Loquat is also directly across the street from 1802 coffee… Anyway, Cypress Park coffee wars. Who woulda thought?
A cortado was meh but a single origin cold brew was superb. They are doing some cool things, as they do. I will go back for a guava granita sometime soonish.
Also, one of their baristas said that as far as he knew, Kumquat wasn’t gonna re-open for indoor coffee, ever. What a bummer, that was one of the best coffee bars in the city.
Where we drinking our coffee in these days, gang? I’m basically at Eightfold echo park and Stereoscope.
PS–anybody know how Orange County has such a good coffee scene? Might be better than LA’s? Is that fully insane to say?
Ten in Marina del Rey has totally set the standard for me–excellent coffee roasted locally (restaurant is from the Bar Nine team), a beautiful space and excellent food. Hard to top their avocado toast on a housemade bagel + a drip coffee out on their patio.
Alchemist in Koreatown remains a great place to hang out (both locations are good). Baked goods are amazing and the coffee is consistently great.
Love the coffee at both Maru locations but rarely stick around since they are busy.
Love love kumquat’s coffee definitely must go even with the take out only. My other personal favorite is Tilt downtown for the cloud foam drinks, has a cool courtyard area to sit in and idk if they reopened the separate study lounge across the way post COVID.
I was confused at first, what you were looking to discuss, because when I was a kid a coffee shop was something like Denny’s*. A restaurant with a really long counter that people sat at, ate, then drank coffee… sometimes all day.
*Maybe that’s why Denny’s added the word diner to their name 10 years ago
I would estimate that I’ve drunk over 2,000 cups of pour over coffee from Verve. So I am obviously a fan. Intelligentsia is around 1,000 cups. Maru is good too.
I can’t compare but OC has some great coffee. Still haven’t been to Stereoscope and heard good things. I do enjoy our OC coffee shops like Reborn, Hopper & Burr, Bodhi Leaf, Portola and Kean.
Dayglow has by far the best coffee+milk drinks (which can also be ordered in half-gallon containers). and on occassion they’re making coffees with Manhattan Coffee Roasters beans, which puts it into the top slot for me.
for straight espresso, 1a/1b are stereoscope/endorffeine
Daydream down by hoag is wonderful as well. Their lead barista used to work for the dayglow founder when he was at Portola. Anyway, she really knows her stuff. Also, they often have Rye Goods pastries…
Vacancy on PCH in Newport has to be a contender for “best coffee in the world a one minute walk from the sand.”
I have a Moccamaster. I’m not crazy about it, the design is too complicated and there are too many ways it can go wrong. I preferred our old Bonavita but something went wrong with it.