14 nouveau L.A. cafes for a chic coffee or matcha break
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- A new crop of coffee shops and cafes have opened across Los Angeles recently.
- Helmed by locals and international brands, these concepts are standing out with exceptional culinary programs, influencer-certified brews and perfume-paired coffee drinks.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Los Angeles is a coffee city. In fact, it might just be the best coffee city.
There are world-class coffee shops, internet-famous cafes, Vietnamese coffee destinations and specialists that source beans only from particular regions and appellations. Every imaginable coffee experience can be found across the region, and some of its newest are the most exciting.
About This Guide
Our journalists independently visited every spot recommended in this guide. We do not accept free meals or experiences. What should we check out next? Send ideas to [email protected].
Over the last few months, L.A. has seen a boom in these openings, be it standalone coffee shops or cafes that also offer ample food programs. Some flip from daytime concepts to full-fledged restaurants or wine bars by night. One is a meticulous matcha purveyor. Another doubles as a record store, complete with listening stations and a DJ booth, while a new East Hollywood cafe hopes to be a community art gallery. You can sip strong Armenian coffee with soujuk breakfast sandwiches in Historic South-Central or pair brews with perfumes in a Koreatown penthouse.
Find the best cafes, freshest brews and your favorite beans in the coffee-shop capital of the world.
Every week it seems a new cafe or coffee shop is sprouting up in L.A., a kind of hyper-caffeinated hydra. Established coffee names are also expanding their footprints; this month, popular local roaster Madlab unveiled a new outpost downtown, while Dayglow recently announced an expansion into Venice.
While this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the new coffee shops and cafes that planted a flag in the region over the last few months, it is a collection of more than a dozen great new places for sipping and, in some cases, dining, shopping artisanal ceramics or taking in local art.
Showing Places
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bahr Cafe
Historic South-Central Cafe
One of L.A.’s most ambitious cafes can now be found in the sprawling lobby of a creative office building in Historic South-Central, where two Funke vets from the San Fernando Valley are serving freshly made pitas and English muffins with basturma, house-made falafel and soujuk.
Bahr Cafe, from chefs Travis Matoesian and Alan Rudoy, serves a blend of Middle Eastern, Italian and Californian cuisines that pairs with fragrant Armenian coffee within the Reef complex. The rotating menu of pizzas, rice pilaf bowls, salads and chicken fingers with date barbecue sauce blend the Armenian roots of Matoesian with the Eastern European Jewish heritage of Rudoy. Between them, they’ve also worked in restaurants such as Bavel, Destroyer and Kato.
The duo, which also operates pizza pop-up El Gato Negro, also bake Bahr’s pastries, including slabs of carrot cake, flaky boreg and Armenian nazook, a kind of cardamom-laced sweet bread. They serve Kavat, the Armenian coffee from Serj Tankian of the band System of a Down (who operates a coffee shop of his own in Eagle Rock). Bahr offers a traditional espresso menu in addition to specialty drinks like a honey latte or the signature cardamom cream top latte, plus several teas.
Bahr Cafe, from chefs Travis Matoesian and Alan Rudoy, serves a blend of Middle Eastern, Italian and Californian cuisines that pairs with fragrant Armenian coffee within the Reef complex. The rotating menu of pizzas, rice pilaf bowls, salads and chicken fingers with date barbecue sauce blend the Armenian roots of Matoesian with the Eastern European Jewish heritage of Rudoy. Between them, they’ve also worked in restaurants such as Bavel, Destroyer and Kato.
The duo, which also operates pizza pop-up El Gato Negro, also bake Bahr’s pastries, including slabs of carrot cake, flaky boreg and Armenian nazook, a kind of cardamom-laced sweet bread. They serve Kavat, the Armenian coffee from Serj Tankian of the band System of a Down (who operates a coffee shop of his own in Eagle Rock). Bahr offers a traditional espresso menu in addition to specialty drinks like a honey latte or the signature cardamom cream top latte, plus several teas.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Bread, Espresso &
Redondo Beach Cafe
Over the last 15 years, Tokyo-founded Bread, Espresso & has garnered legions of fans and dozens of locations across Japan. This year, the coffee and matcha cafe, famed for its pillowy, cubed bread loaves, expanded with its first U.S. outpost in L.A. Head to the base of a Redondo Beach strip mall and grab a silver tray and some tongs, picking and choosing from a variety of “mou,” the chain’s signature, fluffy, shokupan-like bread. The bread sells out quickly here, but each day of service the staff fills the shelves at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Plan your visit accordingly.
The mou comes in sweet varieties (melon matcha, honey toast, hojicha cream and beyond) as well as savory (curried beef and vegetable, croque madame, edamame with bacon). A grab-and-go case uses mou for chilled sandwiches, but order at the counter for toast plates; piping-hot skillets where mou cubes overflow with clam chowder or lobster bisque; and French toast. Matcha, coffee and tea are all available, but an extended cafe drink menu is slated to launch soon.
The mou comes in sweet varieties (melon matcha, honey toast, hojicha cream and beyond) as well as savory (curried beef and vegetable, croque madame, edamame with bacon). A grab-and-go case uses mou for chilled sandwiches, but order at the counter for toast plates; piping-hot skillets where mou cubes overflow with clam chowder or lobster bisque; and French toast. Matcha, coffee and tea are all available, but an extended cafe drink menu is slated to launch soon.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Café 2001
Downtown L.A. Breakfast/Lunch
The tarts feature meticulously layered cherries, pluots, mangoes, peaches and other seasonal fruits in tight, precise formations. The katsu sando drips with fruit-laced, mustardy Japanese barbecue sauce on pillowy milk bread. The menu changes near-daily and shifts from artful, seasonal cafe by day to bistro-tinged, equally artful and seasonal wine bar by night.
Café 2001 is an offshoot of chef Junya Yamasaki’s lauded Japanese restaurant Yess, and in the two-story adjacent space, chef Giles Clark (Yess, St. John’s, Chez Panisse) is heading a cafe menu that turns out exquisite pastries and creative cafe fare that might veer British, Japanese, French or beyond. To wash it all down opt for espresso and drip coffee or a range of matcha and hojicha alongside beer, wine and concoctions like a warm shochu toddy made with yuzu.
Café 2001 is an offshoot of chef Junya Yamasaki’s lauded Japanese restaurant Yess, and in the two-story adjacent space, chef Giles Clark (Yess, St. John’s, Chez Panisse) is heading a cafe menu that turns out exquisite pastries and creative cafe fare that might veer British, Japanese, French or beyond. To wash it all down opt for espresso and drip coffee or a range of matcha and hojicha alongside beer, wine and concoctions like a warm shochu toddy made with yuzu.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Chamberlain Coffee
Century City Coffee Shop
After five years of running Chamberlain Coffee as a retail company for coffee beans, ceremonial-grade matcha, ready-to-drink cans of lattes and cold brews, entrepreneur, influencer and “certified coffee lover,” Emma Chamberlain launched a cafe kiosk at the Westfield Century City shopping mall where, according to staff, the wait can reach up to two hours on weekends.
Chamberlain Coffee’s retail goods can be found here, but if you’re waiting for a taste, opt for the freshly made lattes, cortados, cappuccinos, mochas and more, which can all be customized with cream tops, flavor shots of pistachio, lavender, salted caramel and beyond, and milks in flavors like pistachio or “Emma’s touch,” an almond-and-coconut creamer. The signature drinks include a layered matcha-and-strawberry concoction with a vanilla-strawberry cream top and the salted caramel cold brew with flaky sea salt. Round it out with a fresh croissant, cookie or slice of loaf cake from local bakery Sugar Bloom, which keeps the pastry case stocked.
Chamberlain Coffee’s retail goods can be found here, but if you’re waiting for a taste, opt for the freshly made lattes, cortados, cappuccinos, mochas and more, which can all be customized with cream tops, flavor shots of pistachio, lavender, salted caramel and beyond, and milks in flavors like pistachio or “Emma’s touch,” an almond-and-coconut creamer. The signature drinks include a layered matcha-and-strawberry concoction with a vanilla-strawberry cream top and the salted caramel cold brew with flaky sea salt. Round it out with a fresh croissant, cookie or slice of loaf cake from local bakery Sugar Bloom, which keeps the pastry case stocked.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Doto
Silver Lake Californian cuisine
Part cafe with a globetrotting vibe, part wine bar and, soon, part low-lighted dinner spot, Silver Lake’s newest restaurant is a jack of all trades. Chef Jared Joe Dowling (also of Santa Monica’s Edgemar) quietly debuted Doto in the former Jewel space and is serving a menu that blends Japanese, Californian and Mexican cuisines with his British background. There are koji-laced caramel lattes, single-origin teas and all the espresso-bar classics alongside Sugarbloom pastries like chicken curry puffs, kimchi musubi croissants and matcha doughnuts. The broader daytime menu involves miso-rubbed grilled Arctic char, breakfast burritos with shiso-and-avocado salsa, a Comté-topped burger and more, and if you’re not in the mood for coffee, wash it down with wine. Look for dinner service in the coming weeks.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Elorea
Koreatown Shop
Aroma is a large factor in flavor, and a new cafe in Koreatown is “scentmaxxing” in both its wares and its coffee. Korean fragrance company Elorea opened its first combination perfumery and cafe in New York City, and at the top of the year, it expanded with an L.A. iteration perched in the penthouse of Koreatown’s 1920s Chapman Court building.
Take a wood-paneled elevator up to the roof and walk across the terrace to enter Elorea, where you can shop, find a caffeine fix or both. Straightforward matcha and espresso drinks can be found here, but the cafe’s signature concoctions are inspired by some of the company’s most popular scents, and each drink comes with a paper scent blotter that corresponds to the fragrance. In coffee form, Earth is made with misugaru, espresso, ginger, vanilla, milk and dark chocolate, then smoked with wood under a glass cloche to mirror the woody and warm notes found in the Earth eau de parfum. At Elorea, alternate between sipping and smelling for maximum effect.
Take a wood-paneled elevator up to the roof and walk across the terrace to enter Elorea, where you can shop, find a caffeine fix or both. Straightforward matcha and espresso drinks can be found here, but the cafe’s signature concoctions are inspired by some of the company’s most popular scents, and each drink comes with a paper scent blotter that corresponds to the fragrance. In coffee form, Earth is made with misugaru, espresso, ginger, vanilla, milk and dark chocolate, then smoked with wood under a glass cloche to mirror the woody and warm notes found in the Earth eau de parfum. At Elorea, alternate between sipping and smelling for maximum effect.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Established Today
Fairfax Coffee Shop
Audiophiles, this one’s for you. Melrose coffee shop Established Today launched in late 2024 as a casual spot from the restaurant group behind Amour and Kasbah, and as a project that’s big on music. This coffee shop doubles as a record store with rows of vinyl for purchase, plus listening stations and even a DJ booth. Sip flat whites, macchiatos, cortados, London fog lattes and 14-hour cold brews while you browse, and keep an eye on Instagram for programming like DJ sets. In the future look for the reveal of its recording studio and podcast space, Established Today Studio.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
GG Coffee & Matcha
Beverly Grove Coffee Shop
The chef-owner behind a popular burger joint is getting into the cafe game. Trophies Burger Club’s Geo Delgado recently debuted GG Coffee & Matcha, a sleek, streamlined cafe that’s nearly next door to the Fairfax burger spot. The pared-down menu involves award-winning coffee beans from local roaster (and fellow cafe) Mad Lab and matcha from the equally lauded Rocky’s Matcha, both of which can be enjoyed as lattes or with tonics. Add-ons include house-made vanilla bean syrup, while signature drinks can involve raspberries, koji milk, maple syrup and more. Look to GG Coffee & Matcha for collaborative items, community events, programming such as DJ sets and pop-ups from local makers like Kitty’s Flan Club.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Gong Gan
Silver Lake Cafe
The Silver Lake counterpart to New York City’s Gong Gan offers much of the same whimsy: The Korean-leaning coffees, teas and noncaffeinated concoctions might arrive topped with a cloud of crunchy meringue, garnished with chewy rice cakes, layered with sweet corn cream or balancing a large wedge of waffle for dipping. The pastel-hued interior, mismatched furniture and over-the-top drink aesthetics have made this a destination for photo-happy guests and influencers, but the bevy of beverages also has substance, creatively weaving in black sesame, Korean melon, persimmon and soybean powder.
The Korean cafe serves equally eye-pleasing dishes including croissant-waffle “croffles” drowning in ice creams, matcha, black sesame and other flavors; French toast under burrata, fresh strawberries or Earl Grey blueberries; croissant-bun burgers; and kimchi fried rice.
The Korean cafe serves equally eye-pleasing dishes including croissant-waffle “croffles” drowning in ice creams, matcha, black sesame and other flavors; French toast under burrata, fresh strawberries or Earl Grey blueberries; croissant-bun burgers; and kimchi fried rice.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Good Friend Coffee
East Hollywood Coffee Shop
The large windows open up onto the streets, and the crowds continually stream in for house-blend roasts, teas and layered ceremonial-grade matcha concoctions at Good Friend, a breezy cafe bordering Virgil Village, East Hollywood and Silver Lake. But the most popular items are the specialty drinks, including yuzu-laced cold coffee, cardamom-and-rose tea lattes and the signature peanut butter and jelly latte, where peanut butter syrup, blueberry syrup, espresso and your choice of milk mingle before getting topped with flaky sea salt.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Kettl
Los Feliz Tea
For years, Zach and Minami Mangan tried to bring their imported matchas, chocolates and artisan home goods to Los Angeles, and in February, the New York-founded tea shop finally opened its doors. The husband-and-wife team work directly with esteemed matcha farmers and companies in Japan to spotlight some of the most expressive, high-quality matcha in the world.
The new Los Feliz shop offers tea lattes and cortados, fresh-milled matcha, sparkling matcha, brewed hot tea, iced buckwheat tea and more, plus a wall of take-home teas, ceramics and other specialties. For a more bespoke experience, book one of Kettl’s tea omakases held at the counter. In the future, the Mangans plan to host tea classes and other events in the mezzanine space for even more tea education.
The new Los Feliz shop offers tea lattes and cortados, fresh-milled matcha, sparkling matcha, brewed hot tea, iced buckwheat tea and more, plus a wall of take-home teas, ceramics and other specialties. For a more bespoke experience, book one of Kettl’s tea omakases held at the counter. In the future, the Mangans plan to host tea classes and other events in the mezzanine space for even more tea education.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Takagi Coffee
Beverly Grove Japanese Restaurant
The house-roasted coffee is sourced from around the globe and available in an almost overwhelming range of flavor profiles and roast styles, but at Takagi Coffee, nearly every table can agree on at least one thing: the jiggly soufflé pancakes. The Osaka-based Japanese cafe chain recently made its way to L.A. with a Beverly Grove location that offers specialty coffees along with Japanese comfort-food classics such as hamburger steak, katsu sandos, omelet rice and karaage, but the specialty of the house is the small towers of fluffy pancakes that jiggle and jostle.
Takagi’s made-to-order, griddled pancakes are so popular that they’re served over one million times annually and come in flavors of matcha with adzuki bean, caramel apple, chocolate banana, mango, berry, or build yourown. They pair best with the cafe’s ample selection of coffee, each listed with details of its growing altitude, processing method, flavor notes and more. If you find one you’re particularly fond of, Takagi also sells bags of these beans, which are roasted on site.
Takagi’s made-to-order, griddled pancakes are so popular that they’re served over one million times annually and come in flavors of matcha with adzuki bean, caramel apple, chocolate banana, mango, berry, or build yourown. They pair best with the cafe’s ample selection of coffee, each listed with details of its growing altitude, processing method, flavor notes and more. If you find one you’re particularly fond of, Takagi also sells bags of these beans, which are roasted on site.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Tomat
Westchester Californian $$
Westchester’s highly ambitious Tomat debuted toward the end of 2024 with a parking-lot garden, a rooftop terrace and hypervigilance toward local sourcing for its British- and California-leaning menu. But by day, the downstairs dining room serves as a sunny cafe with coffees, fresh pastries and farmers-market juices that echo the evening ethos. Tomat’s owners, husband-and-wife team Harry Posner and Natalie Dial, tapped Bacetti and Phenakite vet Bex Tilton to lead the pastry program, and during cafe hours she serves a pared-down menu of Danishes, croissants and sausage rolls using the freshest seasonal produce.
Finely laminated croissant dough might burst with pistachios, guava jam with clotted cream or strawberries with cream flecked with vanilla bean. Lattes and flat whites can accompany sausage rolls that dunk into damson-based ketchup. Posner and Dial are looking to expand their cafe menu in the coming months too, possibly with sandwiches and other savory options featuring house-baked bread.
Finely laminated croissant dough might burst with pistachios, guava jam with clotted cream or strawberries with cream flecked with vanilla bean. Lattes and flat whites can accompany sausage rolls that dunk into damson-based ketchup. Posner and Dial are looking to expand their cafe menu in the coming months too, possibly with sandwiches and other savory options featuring house-baked bread.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Wynd Coffee & Art Gallery
East Hollywood Coffee Shop
This soft-launched cafe and forthcoming art gallery is sleek and minimalist, but the specialty drinks are fun and maximalist. That’s not to say that Wynd — which sits at the borders of Virgil Village, East Hollywood and Silver Lake — doesn’t take its coffee seriously. Find a global curation of coffees from Columbia, China, Ethiopia and Costa Rica, plus ceremonial-grade matchas, but lean into the fun of Wynd’s signature options such as a tres leches latte topped with cinnamon mascarpone cream or the tart-sweet clarified yuzu coffee. To eat, snack on Out of Thin Air pastries or the house special, a flan-like muscovado pudding made by microbakery From Alice. Note: Wynd is not currently showcasing art but will begin to do so with its grand opening, slated for April or May, and will rotate the art collection monthly after that.
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