coffee

If you’re like me, perhaps you’re waiting until the last minute to buy holiday gifts.

This fun, but nerve-racking practice isn’t for the faint of heart, and often I rely on an edge: caffeine.

That’s why I was pleased when my colleague Lisa Boone highlighted 15 L.A. spots that offers coffee and gifts, quite the happy hybrid experience.

Let’s jump into her list and maybe you’ll find your own shop that offers the best of both worlds.

Flowerboy Project (Venice)

With Flowerboy Project, equal parts coffeehouse, florist and gift shop, partners Sean Knibb and Stella Shirinda have created an intriguing space that offers a feel-good mix for all the senses.

On Lincoln Boulevard in Venice, the concept cafe and flower shop offers apparel, jewelry, Venice Organics chocolate, home decor and apothecary items alongside fresh-cut and dried floral arrangements.

The cafe serves hot and cold coffee drinks, plus a few specialty drinks such as the Dirty Rose Girl (rose latte) and Lavender Boy (lavender latte), served with flowers on top. Custom flower arrangements are offered at prices ranging from $90 to $175.

Javista at the Atrium (West Hollywood)

Billed as “The Botanist’s Bodega,” the bustling two-story Atrium in West Hollywood is a unique blend of coffee and plants. With Javista Coffee on the ground floor and a delightful array of plants, gifts and additional seating upstairs, the Atrium is a haven for plant enthusiasts and coffee lovers alike.

In addition to coffee staples such as macchiato and espresso, the bodega offers some exotic beverages like the CBTea Latte.

But that’s not all. The Atrium also hosts plant-related workshops, such as a recent one on how to mount a staghorn fern and create a terrarium. Plant lovers will appreciate a variety of plant accessories, including ceramic pots, misters, river stones and LED grow lights.

To support other small businesses, owner Andrew Ruiz stocks a wide selection of books and clothing along with candles from Flamingo Estate, Lavune and Marak, adding a local touch to the Atrium’s offerings.

Little Nelly (Burbank)

Conveniently located in a Burbank neighborhood with plenty of parking, this takeout spot is a great place to shop for gifts while you wait for your espresso or hot combo sandwich (shaved turkey, hot coppa, Gioia burrata, giardiniera, wild arugula and pesto).

The market and sandwich shop, which also offers catering, is filled with cookbooks, handmade ceramics, wood carving boards perfect for charcuterie displays, candles and greeting cards. And for the foodies in your life, the market stocks unique pantry items such as spices, olive oils, vinegar and hot sauce that are perfect for stocking stuffers.

Made by DWC Cafe and Gift Boutique (Downtown L.A.)

Made by DWC, the Skid Row gift shop launched by the Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles in 2011, offers handmade gifts — soaps, bath salts, soy candles and greeting cards — crafted by women on L.A.’s Skid Row area as part of a vocational training program.

All profits from the Made store and cafe, which sells organic coffee, smoothies, salads and pastries from Homeboy Industries, help fund the center’s career training and mentorship programs. Note: The gift shop is not open on weekends.

Sachi.LA (Del Rey)

Influenced by their Japanese heritage, sisters Sachi and Chiyo Hartley opened their Del Rey coffeehouse in 2018 to share “Sachi” — the Japanese kanji character meaning happiness, fortune or good luck — with their community. The coffeehouse, which serves a wide variety of coffee drinks including matcha and the Sachi Special, a signature cold brew with oat milk and vanilla syrup, is just the beginning.

Adjacent to the coffeehouse, which also serves pastries, the sisters have opened a retail space that is a treasure-trove filled with houseplants, gifts, vintage clothes and plant accessories such as bud vases and planters. They also host occasional pop-ups, so keep an eye on their Instagram for updates.

For the entire list, check out the full article here.

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Housed in a historic building in Old Town Tustin, Arvida Book Co. feels like it was plucked out of a romance novel — as though at any moment, strangers could reach for the same title, high school sweethearts could have a holiday run-in or an urban transplant could fall for a beloved homegrown barista.

Maybe it’s the brick exterior, or maybe it’s the heartfelt used book inscriptions, but bookstore co-owners Sam and Mike Robertson said Arvida is indeed the setting of many a first date and has even seen some proposals. For Sam, a self-declared “softie,” watching life unfold within Arvida’s walls has been a sweet surprise.

“This was always the dream, but I didn’t realize how much being the backdrop for people’s lives was going to affect me personally,” the bookseller said. She recalled recently watching one boy reading in the store and thinking to herself, “I remember the day you were born.”

As independent bookstores struggle in an Amazon-dominated market, Sam said she’s grateful for the support of a community that treasures that “third space” aspect of Arvida as much as she does. And where some do turn to “the giant that we shall not name,” as Sam dubbed Amazon, for lower prices, the bookseller said sales at the in-store Tolima Coffee Company cart fill in the gaps.

While Sam herself is a graduate of Peet’s Coffee — “coffee college,” as she called it — Mike is the true barista extraordinaire and even created a signature “Bookshop Blend” in collaboration with Stereoscope Coffee Co. Mike specializes in “coffee-forward” drinks, but he also recommended the matcha spritz and local-favorite ube latte for those with a sweet tooth.

With a cozy children’s nook and ample plush chairs to boot, Arvida is a perfect spot to spend a lazy weekend morning. If you need a better reason to make the trek from L.A., the bookstore’s charming Old Town neighbors are also fabulous for afternoon browsing.

In the context of beverage pros, you might consider Jason Lee something of a spiritual counselor. He works with restaurants where the culinary viewpoints are exceptionally strong — Baroo, Pijja Palace and n/soto line his résumé — and creates specific, complex cocktails that further integrate those culture-based flavors into the experience. Lee is currently bar director at Darling in West Hollywood, the California debut of nationally acclaimed chef Sean Brock. Like many superlative talents who move to Los Angeles, Brock desires to know fresh terrain, to respectfully reflect the city back to itself through his style of cuisine. Many of us, meanwhile, are simply hankering for a taste of his generation-defining Southern cooking. Let’s consider all this at Darling over one of Lee’s drinks. “Almond” is a deeply savory keeper fusing tequila, sherry, roasted almonds and doenjang, brightened by the herbal liqueur Génépi and lemon. Most cocktails roll closely with the seasons, such as an autumnal warmer involving bourbon, brandy, gooseberries and winter squash distilled to its essence. Come early for a dry-aged steak burger, with a limited run of 24 per night, which makes for top-notch drinking food

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