State of the Bean - LA

When this blog began I was in desperate need of a good coffee shop. There was nothing good to be found in the giant sneeze of a city, and definitely nothing on the east side where I live and hang.

Well not long after I started this thing outta frustration on both my part and those around me who got sick of hearing me bitch, the coffee scene changed abruptly. First we got Jeff Johnsen's Choke @ Virgil & Normal. Shortly after Kyle and the Intelli crew dropped on the scene and changed Sunset Junction completely. After that came LA Mill on Silverlake Blvd. I have heard through the grapevine about others soon to follow and even some restaurants stepping up their coffee game (about fucking time).

So where does that leave the demanding coffee lover? Well if you live in or near Silverlake, things are pretty good right now. 3 solid choices in a short distance, all with their charms and downfalls. Each catering to a different socioeconomic Angelino. Intelli gets my business most often because they are convenient, consistent and the crew of people I know there are friendly. Choke is my "variety stop" now that Jules (former Intelli superheroine) is running the game. If you read this blog you might remember that she was the first person I met at the Intelli open night shindig. Jules knows and loves coffee, in a very organic and not overly-academic way. As a result she is bringing some different beans and mixing things up a bit.

Now to be honest, I am not that into LA Mill. I keep going back and will continue to especially now that I going to be living right down the street. I wanna be won over by this place, even if it is just for variety in bean and presentation. However, when I go there I have the same sensation every time. Let me explain...

On my street growing up there was this kid who could never come out and play with us when we needed another to make teams even. Why? Because his mom had him polishing furniture and helping her position something again, cuz it wasn't right the first 10 times! The few times I actually went in to his house, it was like a museum of death. Cold, sterile and lifeless.

Anyways, the place ain't winning any charm awards. The cannelle are good and I hear the food is good. I don't wanna be in there long enough to find out. But as they say, that is why not everybody drives a Ford. Choices!

Next Phase? Well of course more spots to open and each to offer their own researched espresso and coffee. I do not want a town full of Black Cat. Even when I stop in Intelli lately, I have been drinking the single origin espresso they are offering right now. Good stuff! 

There are a lot of different types of folks in this town and the east side at it's best is ethnically and financially diverse. So should the eating and drinking options for it's inhabitants. For every Cliff's Edge or Stella there is Joseph's Best Fish Taco's in Ensenada. For every Rustic Inn there is a Tantra or 4100 bar.

Keep it diverse and keep the new joints coming. Change is good people and in a city with this much money and in-flux of new consumers, we can handle the turnover. 

Next!

Patina - Disney Hall - Downtown

You go to a nice restaurant that is known for the its' food preparation and you order an espresso or perhaps cappuccino. The server brings you the drink in a nice cup with a saucer and a hefty silver spoon. He sets down a silver bowl-thing with an assortment of sugars and its' substitutes. Things look good, unless you actually look at the drink (a cappuccino in this case). This is what you get:
Hot ass coffee, and I do mean HOT. That is wasn't still boiling was amazing.
About an inch to inch and a half of soap foam with no flavor at all...not surprising since it is mostly air.
Once the lava cooled and I could begin to drink I discovered little flavor or satisfaction.

Now if you have read any of my other posts you know that other than Choke and Coffee Intelligentsia this is the standard Los Angeles coffee experience. The thing I still cannot get over is that it happens at all these restaurants that focus so much attention on all these OTHER details. Again, maybe this is because the public does not demand more from them in terms of coffee, so they do not rise to meet anything but the lowest standard. To me this is something like going to one of the finer restaurants here in Los Angeles and they server your food with plastic utensils?!?

So I am not gonna bother with more than this for the review. They didn't, and neither am I.

Step up Los Angeles!

You are the kid who grows in size faster than the other kids and therefore appears to be an adult. However, underneath you are still an ignorant and uncultured child.

Kings Road Cafe - Beverly Blvd & Kings Road

Kings Road Cafe
8361 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048-2633
Phone: (323) 655-9044

In general, I like this place. The location is good and the magazine stand around the corner is very convenient. I like wondering over there, picking up a magazine and grabbing a seat for a bite or relaxing coffee. Which I did last weekend on Sunday. Fortunately for me, the place was not packed and I got a spot outside with my new Fader and Sound on Sound magazines to read (music geek much). I opted for the usual single cappuccino. A reasonable amount of time later the waiter brought out a larger-than-necessary cup full of foam (steamed milk, according to Jules) and coffee. The steamed milk looked good, micro bubbles and plenty of it. I let it cool a bit, read some more about devendra banhart and then dug in.

- Review -

- Coffee -
*
This is really the place where things went wrong. The coffee first tasted of chemicals. If it had been a cup of drip or pressed coffee, I would have thought the grounds were overexposed to the water. I do not know what was going on in that cup. Maybe I should grab a scientist from Intelligentsia and have them analyze it. Nah, that would be mean. Cuz I am fare, I will mention that I have had better coffee here before. However, you are only as good as your last gig in this town...So watch the quality control folks.

- Foam -
*1/2
Micro bubbles - check.
Flavor - check-ish.
Balance with the coffee - no hope, due to the coffee's impenetrable flavor assault.

- Presentation -
*1/2
Cup was attractive, but too big for my tastes.
Steamed Milk/Foam looked good.
Presented to me with the usual cafe drop-off.

- Overall -
*1/2
Read enough of my ranting on this blog and one thing becomes clear. To me, bigger is definitely not better. The small tasteful house that is well designed and has all of its square footage used frequently wins over the giant-ass mansion with rooms that rarely see a human. And so it goes with all foods, including coffee. Get it right, make it the best you can and serve an appropriately sized portion. Don't overcompensate and play to America's inflated need for more and more and more and more(see what I mean). You want volume and excess, go shop at Costco.

Coffee Intelligentsia - Sunset Junction

Intelligentsia Sunset Junction
3922 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90029

...and so we arrive at the opening of the much anticipated Coffee Intelligentsia location here in Los Angeles.
The big opening party was last night and the turn out was fantastic. Lines of people waiting for their first tastes of the Coffee New Wave. There was gelato from a certain place I have reviewed across the street, there was a DJ spinning mostly old school grooves, and of course wine and beer. It was a good party and everyone enjoyed themselves.

I met various members of the Intelli-team, including Kyle, the man in charge of the local operation. Very cool people, very coffee-committed people. One woman in particular, Jules, helped me select a new coffee to try in my press at home. This young lady is very serious about coffee and probably well represents for the Intelli-team in terms of training and mindset. She had a long coffee background and plenty of 411 on the different coffees, where they came from and what intelli's Direct Trade program was all about. As I listened to her explain and inform, a thought began to form in my head. America is about many things to many people, but one trait in particular comes to mind.
Bigger, better, faster, more productive. We take things very seriously. We may be perceived by some as rednecks to the world or dramatic cowboys, but what we really know well is how to "improve" on something. In this case take the Italians, our contemporaries and inspiration for the coffee elite. These folks are seriously chill in comparison. They like coffee and take it seriously, but I cannot imagine having any of the conversations I had last night at Caffe Trieste. In America, we take something that is based on tradition and derives its mystique from the aesthetic and standards to which it is created, and we science the hell out of it. you could almost say we are the science to the rest of the worlds religion or faith. Explaining every aspect of something that never needed explaining before. Now I am as much a geek (or more) than the next guy, but this thought did come to mind during the course of my coffee-intensive evening.
To now concluded this aside and get to the review...Chill out America! Look around at your neighbors on the planet and calm the fuck down. This is NOT a race and if it were, we might be in first, but we are definitely not winning. Know the details, fine. Research the shit outta whatever you want. Ok. But remember that there is always a bigger picture and often it is the appreciation of that, which matters most.

- Review -

- Coffee -
***
Flavor of the coffee is perfectly balanced with the milk/foam. Good consistency and the temperature was perfect. I did not ask which of their coffees they were using for the espressos, but I am guessing is was their Black Cat (which was not available for purchase last night).


- Foam -
***
The way it should be. Thick and smooth with just a hint of sweetness from the milk. Again, well balanced with the coffee flavor. I believe they were using whole milk, or it looked like something of that weight and fat content.

- Presentation -
***
Saucer and spoon set out first...tension builds...the cup is set on the counter...she pours the frothed milk in very carefully and you see the magic of a cappuccino being to take shape. As she concludes the pour and nice little heart shape appears at the finish. Viola!
Nice porcelain from everyone's favorite ACF.

- Overall -
***
Jeff, your competition or comrades, depending on how you look at it, have arrived. We now have two locations on the east side for a real coffee experience. Thank you to the Shoguns of Coffee Intelligentsia in Chicago for sending trendy, lost and misguided little LA and beacon of hope and taste. Now the real challenge begins...teaching the numb and mislead people of LA that THIS is what it is supposed to taste like, not that crap you have been drinking everywhere else.
Oh yeah and Intelli-Team, go easy. Chill a little. It IS coffee and you and I take it probably too seriously most of the time. Next time you interact with the rest of the world, think of some super cool, laid back, old Italian guy in loafers and pressed pants serving up a coffee, right before he hops on his scooter and zips off to his lover, mid-afternoon, waving as he disappears into the sun...Ciao!

Choke

Choke
4157 Normal Ave.
open Tuesday -Saturday
10 a.m.-7 p.m.
(323) 662-4653.

Today, I had the pleasure of enjoying two of my favorite things in succession. No, not hookers and an 8-ball. Fish or Shrimp tacos and a cappuccino to finish. First a quick shout out to the taco spot.

Best Fish Taco in Ensenada
1650 N. Hillhurst
90027

Great tacos. Simple menu. cool owner and his mom works the register, so you better be honest with your taco count. You order them one at a time, because he wants you to eat them hot, and so do you, so be patient and enjoy. OK, back to the coffee.

Jeff at Choke has already been glowingly written up by some enamored writer from the LA Weekly, so I will stick to my opinions and leave out the back story. This guy has history with coffee outside of LA, which, like the rest of us, is how he knows about the good stuff. He has a water filtration and softening system and closely monitors the humidity in the air when determining his grounds. Get it? HE PAYS ATTENTION.
What that means to you and me and every other schmo who walks in the door is a great coffee, with little variation in the quality or flavor. I have been enough times to have tasted the variations in milk sweetness and coffee thickness, and I can tell you it's all good.

- Review -

- Coffee -
***
Distinct flavor. Perfect thickness. Bitterness is well balanced with the milk/foam
(hear from grapevine that Jeff is gonna start using Coffee Intelligentsia coffee soon...they are taking over!)

- Foam -
***
Jeff's foam is not so much the Trieste micro-bubbled, semi-caramelized kind, as the thick milk, creamy goodness kind. In the grading of a cappuccino, I believe it is how the components come together as whole that determines it's scoring. For this reason, his foam gets 3 stars.

- Presentation -
***
You get Latte art in a scooter shop. You know, the shit you see on the cooking channel and in magazines. Little leaves or hearts or whatever.
Sadly, I often get my coffee here in a white paper cup. (Parking really, really sucks in the Choke hood.)
I see porcelain on the machine and have seen others drinking from it, so this is my fault, not his.

- Overall -
***
If you are reading this blog, you are either a friend of mine or you like good coffee. In either case you should go to Choke and have a cappuccino. Then we have something we can talk about and/or you have a new standard of excellence in your coffee spectrum.

Il Capriccio on Vermont

Il Capriccio on Vermont
1757 North Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027

The occasion was dinner for our departing friend Stephanie. My two slack coffee correspondents and I decide to treat her to a nice local Italian spot introduced to us by our friend Anselm. We had been there before and collectively remarked on the lackluster coffee experience, however everyone deserves a second chance. This was their's.
The food was nice, as was our server despite being a little slow on the delivery of every course. At the conclusion of dinner we decided to try a variety of coffees and desserts. I opted for a straight up cup of decaf and shared the homemade tiramisu. Everyone else got cappuccinos, with Stephanie's being decaf. We also shared the apple pie a la mode.
My coffee was hot and I took it black in order to discover the true flavor...there was none to speak of, but I tried. I sampled the capps as well as asked my usual round of questions to get the tables consensus.
Does the coffee have a distinct flavor?
No, not really.
Can you taste the components of the drink?
sort of.
What is the strongest flavor?
The coffee, only cuz the foam has none.
Is the milk sweet? Does it have any flavor?
nope.
What is the consistency of the Foam?
Decent bubbles, but no body or flavor.
Is the drink hot?
Yes.

So after a round of discussions and some explanations of my simple review process to Stephanie (who btw is currently designing the Coffee and Smog Header), I concluded my review for the table's coffees collectively:

- Review -

- Coffee -
*
They have a nice machine and a young lady hanging nearby at all times, which leads me to believe they are somewhat aware of the importance of good coffee. However, the coffee taste like Folgers or some other kind of generic, diner blend. This is not acceptable.
COME ON!!!
Buy some good coffee and grind it fresh. It is not that hard. Even Pazzo Gelato manages to buy the good stuff before they screw it up.

- Foam -
*
This is the part I am most often upset and confused by...In most cases, at most places, this is the ONLY real MANUAL part of the process. EVERYTHING ELSE the machines do for you. This could be the one part of the process were the human being really steps in and applies creativity and that all too important HUMAN TOUCH. However, more often then not, it ends up being the "I will think about my laundry and how little I make" phase of the coffee preparation process. And so you get dish soap bubbles or burnt milk sludge. On this occasion it was dish soap bubbles, which IS better than sludge, thus the 1 star.

- Presentation -
*
Nice Pasquini porcelain and the server got most of the coffee to us still in the cup.

- Overall -
*
NOT GOOD ENOUGH. You guys have a nice spot, in a GREAT fucking location. I mean COME ON!!!
Take the time to send your staff to Coffee Intelligentsia at Sunset Junction (once they open) to learn how to do it right and while you are there, BUY SOME COFFEE. I suggest the Black Cat espresso blend.

I may sounds mad with all the caps and ranting, and that would be because I AM!
This is exactly what I am talking about in this lame ass town.
Great spot. Good food. Could be a local hang for dessert and coffee, but instead you get a photo copy of the real thing.

p.s. maybe you should hire the young lady from Kaldi...

Kaldi Coffee & Tea

Been gone a while, sorry bout that. Back now with two for you.
First up:
Kaldi Coffee and Tea
3147 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90039
(323) 660-6005

This is a tiny little spot around the corner from where I serve my daytime sentence out. Originally it was owned by a couple of regular guys who would alternately hang around and pull coffee all day. I would pop in and talk coffee and the weather like everyone else. They seemed like good guys and the fact that they had pulled together and started their own spot really struck a chord in me. So, I would go there ALL THE TIME. Any excuse to stop by and get my fix, even if it was no where near our lunch spot for that day. I wanted to support the little guy, and did.
Well time passed, I managed to leave and return to my reason for being in the hood, and they were still there. One day I stopped by and learned that they were selling it to new owners...not good news for me, but perhaps good coin for my fellow upstarts, so be it.
Honestly, I can't say anything about the new owner(s). I think I met one of them once, shortly after the sale, but I can't be sure. None the less, I was seriously dubious about the quality maintaining and the service being as personal. And on the few occaisions that I did stop by, the experience was definitely varied. (Exposition ends here)
Today I stopped by with my good friend Chris (a man who UNDERSTANDS baking). We were greated by a pleasant young woman wearing a cool shirt that read: "Snorkling is sexy" Being men who appreciate women, we both agreed. :)
Anyways, I got a cappuccino and Chris got some crazy, fluffy-sweet, latte-type thing with whipped cream (the man likes his sweets).
I broke tradition and got it to go in the obligatory paper cup. While we were talking and she was preparing I noticed the attention she paid to the process and how she cleaned everything as she went along...very good signs. I noticed her concentration and technique in creating the foam and froth...more good signs. She presented and we paid, I tipped.

- REVIEW -

- Coffee -
**
Good flavor. Distinct. Not ideally thick and rich, but definitely on the map of good flavor.
They claim to roast their own coffee, but I don't remember her actually grinding the beans...

- Foam -
**1/2
Very nice consistancy and bubble size. She asked what kind of milk and I responded with Whole milk.
I believe it paid off in flavor and thickness.

- Presentation -
**
Not holding the paper cup against them since it was my choice,
but I am subtracting for not asking me in what I wanted it served.
All in all she presented our coffees like it mattered and not like it was something she was doing on the way to another chore.

- Overall -
**
Nice work young lady and good choice Kaldi for hiring someone who knows what they are doing.