The Arts District is a popular hangout for Angelenos, largely because the neighborhood is one of the few in LA that doesn’t require a car to be around between trips. Visitors can easily walk to Little Tokyo, Chinatown, and further into the heart of downtown, making it an especially convenient place to start an urban day hike. Just outside the DTLA, the Arts District is three square kilometers and offers a variety of breweries, shopping, restaurants and cafes. Freshly painted graffiti cover the brick walls of the newly renovated warehouses, creating unique murals and accent lights that line the sidewalks and frame the entrances to elegant boutiques and apartments – today’s arts district would be a far cry from the artist colony it served in the 1970s.
As soon as the sun goes down, the neighborhood turns into a hub for nightlife – the streets are filled with twenty looking for a beer and crowding the fronts of breweries and bars. But during the day this is coffee town, and the now grand cafes on Mateo, Traction, and Santa Fe Avenues fill to the brim. Here we describe a coffee crawl that will take you to some of the Arts District’s current and future standout features with your car parked in one place.
Asphalt coffee
Asphalt coffee is the first product of Tyler Wells‘(formerly Handsome Coffee) small empire of coffee boutiques across town (Highland Park’s Civil Coffee and DTLA’s Nice Coffee are its other locations). Blacktop used Counterculture coffee. The inside, outside and the beverage presentation of the shop make the visit a sensational experience with tasteful wood and blue-green accents, an ivy-walled terrace and seating made of wooden blocks.
Blacktop’s drinks menu is simply written. There are three options for espresso drinks – black, white and chocolate – as well as a daily drip / cold brew and Selection of teas and chai. Then there’s the toast – which can be garnished with salmon, picked vegetables, and more for a few extra dollars. And just in case you are still not full after visiting. Salt and straw is right across the street.
Stumptown Coffee Roaster
Portland, Oregon Stumptown Coffee Roaster was a massive wholesale coffee shop supplier in LA for its early years in the city, and while they still have active wholesale accounts here, they added a gorgeous coffee shop extension to their Arts District convent in 2013. It’s a mix of lager from Pacific Northwest-meets-cafe-meets-coffee-boutique. Clear Doug Fir wooden counters, cement floors, and chocolate-cream ceramic mugs remind visitors of the company’s Portland roots. The cafe is in a quiet corner of Santa Fe and shares pedestrian traffic with the renowned DTLA animal Restaurant and HD buttercup Furniture. They sell a huge selection of flavored cold beers, juices, mugs, coffee sets, and other Stumptown paraphernalia, and they offer several cold beers on tap. There is also coffee on Bee House Pourover via a Modbar tap system and espresso drinks made on a pretty Pantechnicon La Marzocco – a seasonal Horchata cold brew is currently on the menu. Pastries out Sugar Blossom Bakery Round out the list of reasons to make Stumptown a must see.
The wheelhouse
On one side of The wheelhouse is the epitome of an aesthetically-minded café with a damn good coffee program to go with it; There is a bike shop on the other side. In between there are deep teal accents, wallpapered ceilings, and cement floors. Thick wooden tops, glass coffee decanters, and speckled hatched ceramic mugs handy ask you to hang around and hang out. The Wheelhouse menu offers daily coffee, cold brew and espresso with “small”, “medium” or “large” milk pourings – all courtesy of Olympia coffee roastery. A separate menu at the counter offers additional offers AeroPress, Coffeebeautiful Pastry combinations and seasonal specialty drinks created by the wheelhouse owners and baristas. As you sip, even non-cyclists will find something to grab their attention when choosing boutique cycling gear. Cyclists, on the other hand, can take advantage of bicycle repair services, rentals and happy hour rides.
Blue bottle of coffee
Blue Bottle Coffee CompanyThe first LA location, located in the former Handsome Coffee area, is a staple cafe in the Arts District on Mateo and is full of constant customers drinking coffee, whether they are between on-set concerts, residents or local creatives. The cafe is also part of the Blue Bottle LA headquarters and monastery and smells like freshly roasted coffee three times a week. Like many of the cafes in the Arts District, Blue Bottle is keeping the appearance of the warehouse, retaining the cement floors and roasting room. Take a break for a doused filter coffee or indulge in Blue Bottles signature chicory-roasted New Orleans coffee. Like much of the Blue Bottle’s Simplicity motto, the espresso menu includes your standard milk beverages, and espresso is served courtesy of a La Marzocco FB80. There are roasting tours on Saturdays, and popular food trucks regularly drive outside. As one of the first cafes in the Arts District, this place is more than just a café – it’s a central meeting point in the neighborhood.
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Two years ago, Little Tokyo Cafe Dulce launched a second location as a popup inside DTLA SERIES, a former marketplace for lifestyle products. Dos shares the space with several other large boutiques and now serves as a permanent walk-in coffee spot for those who want to eat something on the weekly Sunday in Smorgasburg between shopping or a snack. Like Cafe Dulce’s original location, Dos puts a lot of emphasis on design and branding to keep everything clear and eye-catching – from sugary donuts with muesli to interior design to the presentation of drinks in beer mugs and mason jars. The cafe ventures into the same style as the colorful street art of the Arts District, with painted murals by Annie Seo and Steven Daily. The menu is a wonderfully overwhelming amount, from the variety of drinks to a wide variety of sweets and sandwiches. Dos serves Heart coffee roaster from a smart group of three huntress for classic espresso drinks and also for infusions. In addition, Cafe Dulce lives up to its name and the menu is packed with sweet drinks like the Vietnamese iced coffee, the Dulce Latte (a latte with a dash of condensed milk), a blueberry matcha latte and much more. It would be a crime to come to Dos and not order a donut too – lines routinely clog the registers and customers crave flavors of green roti and oreo.
Tartine Manufactory
The Bay Area seems poised to land in LA more than ever. consequences Mr. Holmes Bakery and the successful beginnings of Blue Bottle are coming very popular Tartine Manufactorywhich will soon take place in the former American Apparel Warehouse and in the ROW DTLA. The vast area will be a comprehensive temple for bread-making, baking, coffee and food preparation. On an area of 40,000 square meters, the complex will also have two restaurant areas and a market. During Tartine Coffee factory makes it easy at the moment by offering a single origin, a mix and a decaf roast each, the new massive monastery weighing 120 kilograms Checked and a coffee laboratory upstairs should enable them to offer more roasts in the future. According to Bloomberg PursuitsYou will also work with chefs on bespoke mixes.
Verve coffee roaster
Soon, verve will continue its own invasion of Southern California with a fourth location and a second LA monastery on the corner of Santa Fe and Mateo. Hailing from the shores of Santa Cruz, Verve’s LA cafes complement their Northern California stores with light wood tables, teal and dark blue tiles, and fresh succulents that line the shelves between freshly roasted coffee sacks (location in Downtown LA) is packed with its own Greenhouse made of plants that line the walls and ceilings of the outdoor terrace. Almost all cafes work with high-end devices like four-groups Kees van der Westen Spirits and Modifiable automatic infusions, and will likely continue to fuel the city’s love of pressed juice Juice is served here and flights of squeezed juice. In addition to their simple menu of coffee and curated tea, there will also be food at this place as they are currently testing the water with a simple hearty menu of sandwiches and salads in their Melrose room.
Cognoscenti coffee
While not directly within the parameters of the Arts District, its proximity to the neighborhood calls for a quick peek at one of LA’s original roasters. An architect who became the barista, founder, and coffee legend Yeekai Lim opened the original Cognoscenti Location as a pop-up in Eagle Rock and was a fundamental figure in looking after many of the other cafe owners we see today, like Jack Benjakul from Endor-fine in Chinatown. Cognoscenti makes it easy for itself at their third and newest location in San Julian in the Fashion District. The cafe is clean and spacious with high vaulted ceilings, cement floors and walls, and large glass windows that naturally light the space and keep the atmosphere of the warehouse alive. The simple menu includes three different personal roasts to pour over (two individual origins and a mix) that are automatically brewed Frame SP9sand milk drinks steamed on modbar. Aside from teas, you can also cool off with some of the sweeter seasonal specialties like affogatos, milkshakes, and a ginger tonic. Thanks to Lim’s previous relationships too proofThe shop’s menu features some of the coveted Atwater Village bakery goodies like croissants and currant scones, while small breakfast items like egg sandwiches and yogurt parfaits serve to really fill your tummy.
Katrina Yentch is a Sprudge employee based in Los Angeles. Read more about Katrina Yentch on Sprudge.
12th September 2017
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