The Barista asked me “Do you like dogs, cats or monkeys?”
The Spot, Coffee Shop and Art House. Late night showing for Alisha Choi.
The Spot
4455 Overland Ave
Culver City, CA 90230
(310) 559-8868
www.thespotcafelounge.com
Tag Archives: Coffee
Midnight Express-o
18 JulUrth Cafe: Sunday Morning
14 JunUrth Caffe is a wonderful West Hollywood spot. They are coffee foam artists, and were on a roll this morning.
This is my twin sister Natalie. On most days, we can be found together.
Urth Caffe
8565 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 659-0628
Fly Away
21 JulOn Saturday night I was irritated by a fly. I have no idea how it got into my apartment, and I’m wondering if I have a hole in a window screen somewhere. I unsuccessfully tried to kill it with a roll of paper towels – for half an hour. The fly made dinner making more complicated, as it kept hovering over my chicken bits and veggies, coming within millimeters of my about-to-be-devoured meal. Then I lost the fly’s location and decided I had hit it enough to knock it unconscious and send it flailing into some dusty corner.
I woke up on Sunday around 9am. Intent on meeting a friend at the Pasadena Descanso gardens, I hurriedly got dressed, cooked up a breakfast of eggs and bacon, and heated yesterday’s coffee in the microwave. I got dressed, ate breakfast and finished my coffee with the exception of one gulp remaining. I grabbed my keys, my purse, put on my shoes and reached for my cup. With the last sip, a clump of what I thought was coffee grinds hit my lips. I stopped and looked into my cup to investigate the confusing dark mass. Guess that fly got the best of me – it had been steeping its flavor in my cup o’ joe. Looking back at me, there it was – dead, on the cusp of my cup.
How many diseases do you think I just inherited?
Insomnia
13 MayIt is well past midnight and I’m walking down Beverly Boulevard to grab a cup of Joe. This is fairly rare. I should be sleeping. I treasure my down time.
So imagine this…a long room (more long than wide anyway) drenched in sepia tones, dimly lit by two dusty 1940’s vintage crystal chandeliers, furnished with small wooden tables, soiled velvet couches, a smattering of laptop power plugs lining the walls at waist height, and a waitstaff demonstrating their best night-of-the-living-dead impression while asking you what you want with a hint of denigration. They don’t serve decaf here(I tried that). It’s Insomnia cafe people and it’s well past midnight.
Come ready to party, this cafe is a grunge fest, complete with out of work artists, actors and writers working away on their little mac laptops. Take a hint from the name, this cafe is for the hard-working and ambitious. These patrons are so consciously self-unaware the stench of pretension is a little thick.
Onwards….
If you want a late night snack and a quiet place to work, this cafe should be your destination; but here’s hoping you sleep well.
Starbucks, Only Better?
4 AprA friend of mine once woke from a dream in which she opened up a Starbucks in the jungles of Paraguay. Granted, she worked at Starbucks at the time, the dream certainly wasn’t uninspired. Although she never advocated it’s existence, she certainly didn’t oppose it (after all, she worked at one of the newest Starbucks music stores off Lincoln Road in Miami Beach; and they wanted to promote her – that was one thing she didn’t want and she turned them down). There’s no denying that pretty much everyone in the world coffee drinking age has tried Starbucks self-promoted ‘premier’ coffee, and subsequently been exposed to its’ Baristas and cornucopia of merchandise (did anyone see the coffee cups shaped like a to go mug? I admit – I think they’re cute). However, the prices of their coffee have gone up without quality to match, and I often find the long lines and cookie-cutter atmosphere has cheapened the experience.
How lucky was I to find a blurb in New York magazine about how Starbucks should wise up and take a gander at the newbie coffee houses slowly whittling away their profits and producing Mochas and Lattes that justify the price and a true gourmet reputation. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a true coffee house in L.A. and it’s name is Intelligentsia. Known to many SilverLake dwellers, their L.A. location exists on a small section off Sunset, where some of the more interesting culinary treats of Silverlake exist.
Why comes to L.A.? If you go to the site, it’s slightly reminiscent of the Starbucks mantra, however, “Along with introducing Los Angeles to Intelligentsia’s understanding that responsible business practices create the finest coffees, the Silver Lake store will showcase the seasonality of the fine coffees. An agricultural product, coffee can be grown and harvested with the same care and commitment local artisanal farmers have for heirloom vegetables. And like heirloom vegetables, coffee varietals, such as the famed Geisha bean, each have a season when they are at their peak. The new Silver Lake store will showcase these finer, heirloom-grown coffees by offering coffees only during their specific season, when their stunning aromas and flavors elevate it from commodity crop to an elegant foodstuff to be savored.”
So where does that leave Starbucks, leader of the coffee biz? Danny Meyer, a restauranteur, believes that since Starbucks has “put an entire adult population through Coffee University,” it must now prepare its own generations of “stores run by passionate coffee geeks,” after taking a cue from “four of the smaller, elite players from across the world who are doing it right.” Drumroll please, these are: Monmouth Coffee (London), Blue Bottle (San Francisco-Oakland), Intelligentsia (Chicago/Note* L.A. is their newest location), and Joe the art of Coffee (New York). L.A. certainly doesn’t need another superficial anecdote in the daily grind; but can Angelenos sacrifice their time for a good cup of Joe? After all, I don’t want to see Starbucks in the middle of the jungle.
Intelligentsia
Coffee sommelier, pastries, Clover
3922 W. Sunset Blvd., 323.663.6173
Daily 6am-11pm
NO SAINTS IN L.A. 