Los Angeles coffee guide: where the barista champions roast

Los Angeles is a city of roasters who also win competitions. Go Get Em Tiger was founded by two US Barista Champions, and Be Bright’s co-founder Frank took the same title in 2024. Ten of the thirteen businesses in this guide roast at least some of their own coffee: Go Get Em Tiger in Los Angeles and at origin, Maru in Glassell Park, Be Bright on Tuesdays, Cognoscenti at its Downtown roastery café, Canyon, Civil on Fridays, Alana’s in house almost daily, Groundwork in North Hollywood, where it has roasted since leaving its first café in Venice, Loquat, whose buyers go to origin every harvest, and Dayglow, which built its name on pouring roasters from Copenhagen to New Zealand and has since started roasting too. The other three are cafés first: Kumquat, Loquat’s sister shop with a roster from Seoul to Berlin, Endorffeine in Chinatown, where SEY, Prolog and April are brewed by hand, and Menotti’s, on the Venice Beach boardwalk since 2013.

Go Get Em Tiger, Larchmont Village and Grand Central Market

Go Get Em Tiger has been a Los Angeles coffee company since 2013, with roots in G&B Coffee, which Kyle Glanville and Charles Babinski started as a pop-up inside Sqirl before opening a bar at Grand Central Market. Glanville won the US Barista Championship in 2008, Babinski in 2015. The first Go Get Em Tiger opened in Larchmont Village later in 2013; there are now shops in Los Feliz, Hollywood, Highland Park and at ROW in the Arts District, plus two in Culver City. The coffee is roasted in Los Angeles, and through its Roasted at Origin programme a growing share is roasted in the countries where it is grown, to profiles developed with the producers, with a goal of 20% by the end of 2026.

Maru Coffee, Los Feliz, the Arts District and Beverly Hills

Maru Coffee takes its name from the Korean San Ma Ru, “mountaintop”, and is inspired by all things analogue and the simplicity of good coffee. All of its coffee is roasted at its roastery in Glassell Park, where the team also defines the tasting notes for each lot. The range runs to seasonal single-origin releases, the newest a Panama Elida Estate, and three blends, Sanmi, Santo and Kemi. The cafés are in Los Feliz, the Arts District and Beverly Hills, with a fourth in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Be Bright Coffee, Melrose

Be Bright Coffee was launched in 2020 by Frank and Michelle to make locally roasted coffee easy for the average coffee drinker to find. It spent three and a half years as a Sunday pop-up at Smorgasburg before opening its café on Melrose in 2022, and it roasts every Tuesday in Los Angeles. The competition record runs from a cold brew championship in 2021 through third place at the 2022 US Roaster Championship to Frank’s win at the 2024 US Barista Championship and second place at the 2025 US Brewers Cup. The café serves signature drinks such as the Ultralight Bean and the Einspänner beside pour-over, cold brew and a list of Chinese and Taiwanese teas, with food made in house.

Cognoscenti Coffee, the Fashion District and Culver City

Cognoscenti Coffee began as “LA’s first pop-up specialty coffee bar” and now roasts at its café at City Market South in the Downtown Fashion District, with a second café in the Culver City Arts District. It roasts single-origin microlots chosen through continual cupping and long-term relationships, and small-batch blends for everyday pour-over, espresso and cold brew. The current microlots lean towards Colombia, with several lots from Néstor Lasso’s El Diviso farm and a koji-fermented Maragogype from Diego Bermúdez, alongside a washed Guji, a Papua New Guinea natural and a natural Caturra from Eli Espinoza in Peru. The house blend is It’s a Hoot.

Canyon Coffee, Echo Park

Canyon Coffee began in 2016 in the apartment of Ally Walsh and Casey Wojtalewicz and roasts certified organic and regenerative coffees by hand at its own facility in Los Angeles, packing and folding each bag by hand. Beachwood, the bestselling blend, is named after the canyon where the two met in 2013 and rotates its origin with the seasons; The Alentejo is the darkest roast, Sagebrush the seasonal coffee from emerging farms, and Gedeb a year-round washed Ethiopian. The Echo Park café is tucked into Elysian Heights and pours drip, espresso and flash brew on tap, with pastries by Sasha Piligian and toasts on bread from Bub & Grandma’s. A second café is in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

Civil Coffee, Highland Park, Studio City and Downtown

Civil Coffee belongs to the Morales brothers, Alex and Alan, born in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles, who started with a red Toyota truck and then a coffee cart. Civil sources only Mexican coffee, from Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Veracruz, meets its producers at origin and roasts once a week, on Fridays. The Highland Park café, on the old Route 66 corridor, was the first, with Mexican stone tile floors, a marble wall and a mirrored espresso bar; Studio City sits in the Sportsmen’s Lodge with a brunch kitchen and a courtyard, and the Downtown café in the Fashion District is a room of floor-to-ceiling windows and gold accents. Civilian 2.0 is the brothers’ cafecito blend.

Dayglow, Silver Lake, Chinatown, Larchmont and Venice

Dayglow opened in Silver Lake on New Year’s Day 2018, founded by the cousins Tohm and Philippe Ifergan, with a coffee from Belleville in Paris on its first menu. “We don’t push coffee. We curate it.” The cafés pour roasters discovered at home and abroad, among them Coffee Collective, Friedhats, Dak, Swerl, Slow and Dalston, and sell them through an online market and subscriptions. Dayglow has since started roasting its own coffees, named by profile letter from W for winey to V for vibrant and roasted weekly. There are four cafés in Los Angeles, in Chinatown, where the café doubles as Niteglow, Silver Lake, Larchmont and Venice, one in West Hollywood and others in Chicago and Brooklyn.

Alana’s Coffee Roasters, Mar Vista and Venice

Alana’s Coffee Roasters roasts in house almost daily and only roasts beans that are in season, bought directly from farmers or through a supplier who works with them. The newest release is a lot from Leónides Castro García in Oaxaca, and the shelf holds Ethiopian and Mexican lots, a sugarcane decaf and the 10th Street and Mar Vista Morning blends. The cafés make their own syrups and keep the powders low on sugar; there are three, in Mar Vista, Venice and West Hollywood.

Groundwork Coffee, Venice, North Hollywood and five more

Groundwork Coffee opened its first café in Venice Beach and started roasting around the clock inside it, under an old oven hood, after leasing the brick building in 1991. It now roasts at a solar-powered headquarters in North Hollywood on two 70-kilo roasters, and at a second roastery in Portland that came with Kobos Coffee in 2016. Everything is certified organic, the company is a Certified B Corp, and it launched what it calls the first Regenerative Organic Certified coffee. The Los Angeles cafés sit in the North Hollywood Historic Train Depot, a former Wells Fargo bank in Hollywood, a Venice Boardwalk building with one of the earliest elevators west of the Mississippi, the Downtown Arts District and Larchmont Village, with another in Santa Monica.

Loquat Coffee, Cypress Park and Silver Lake

Loquat Coffee is the roastery of the Kumquat family, with cafés in Cypress Park and Silver Lake. Its green buyers go to origin every harvest, and most of its coffees carry the price Loquat paid per kilo and the cost after its own labour. The range leans to Geisha lots from Hacienda La Esmeralda, the Lamastus and Janson estates, Finca Nuguo and Las Margaritas 26, and Gesha Village in Ethiopia, with Abana and Herbazú among the everyday single origins. Everything is roasted from Nordic light to light-medium, with the Nano and Vantage lots sold in 20 g and 60 g packs by roast date. The blends include the QUAT everyday espresso and Taxi, the drip coffee in both cafés, where the April Brewer handles pour-over and Geisha espresso is served in a chilled glass.

Kumquat Coffee, Highland Park, Downtown and Glassell Park

Kumquat Coffee opened in Highland Park in 2018 and now has a Downtown café in the Financial District, with a one-of-one La Marzocco Strada AV built to match the room, and Quat, a café, retail store and events space in Glassell Park. Loquat is the family’s own roastery and the beans Kumquat sells wholesale; the rest of the shelf goes to Fritz and Momos from Korea, Leaves, Lilo and MAME from Japan, April, The Barn, Tanat, Passenger and Savage Coffees, with a monthly subscription chosen by a committee of in-house Q-graders. Kumquat has twice hosted the April Brewers Cup, runs a green-bean market for home roasters and competitors, and in 2025 was, by its own account, the only host in Los Angeles of the Best of Panama cupping.

Endorffeine, Chinatown

Endorffeine is a coffee bar in Far East Plaza where Jack, a biochemist and then a pastry cook before he opened it, brews every drink himself. The programme is built on SEY, Drop, Ilse, Prolog, April and Leaves with changing guest roasters. Beyond coffee, 9 is a nine-guest desserts-and-cocktails tasting drawn from his Thai heritage and American upbringing. The bar was a James Beard Foundation Award finalist in 2026.

Menotti’s Coffee Stop, Venice Beach, Culver City and West LA

Menotti’s Coffee Stop has been the coffee stop on the Venice Beach boardwalk since 2013, with vinyl picked by the team, a patio and a signature menu of the O.G. Vegan Spanish Latte, Espresso and Tonic and The Bees Knees with lavender honey. The Culver City café adds Shokupan toast from Ginza Nishikawa with Hatchet Hall toppings, the West LA café sits between Santa Monica and Sawtelle, and a fourth shop in Tokyo is curated by friends of the owners. Its own bags include the V.S.E.B. blend of Ethiopia Shakiso and Mexico Jaguar, the Tokyo Blend and the Best Friends Blend that returns a dollar a pound to the growers, and its trucks pour at Coachella.

What you need to know about Los Angeles specialty coffee

Which Los Angeles coffee shops roast their own coffee? Go Get Em Tiger roasts in Los Angeles and at origin, Maru in Glassell Park, Cognoscenti at its Downtown café, Groundwork in North Hollywood, Be Bright every Tuesday in Los Angeles, Canyon and Civil in the city, Alana’s in house almost daily, and Loquat at its Los Angeles roastery. Dayglow roasts its own range weekly alongside the guest roasters it serves.

Where can you taste roasters from outside Los Angeles? Dayglow’s cafés and online market carry a changing roster, among them Coffee Collective from Denmark, Friedhats and Dak from Amsterdam, Swerl from Sweden, Slow from New Zealand and Dalston from Barcelona. Kumquat pours Fritz and Momos from Korea, Leaves from Tokyo, April from Copenhagen and The Barn from Berlin, and Endorffeine brews SEY, Drop, Ilse, Prolog, April and Leaves.

Which cafés have barista champions behind them? Go Get Em Tiger’s founders Kyle Glanville and Charles Babinski won the US Barista Championship in 2008 and 2015, and Be Bright’s co-founder Frank won it in 2024; Be Bright also placed third at the 2022 US Roaster Championship and second at the 2025 US Brewers Cup.

Where is the food? Civil’s Studio City café has a full brunch kitchen, Groundwork’s cafés serve brunch and scratch-made pastries, Canyon Echo Park serves toasts and sandwiches on Bub & Grandma’s bread, Be Bright makes its food in house, Kumquat sells a breakfast burrito by chef Gary Nguyen for in-store pick-up, Menotti’s Culver City serves Shokupan toast with Hatchet Hall toppings, and Go Get Em Tiger’s shops mostly have full food menus.

Which of these are outside the city of Los Angeles? Cognoscenti’s second café and two Go Get Em Tiger shops are in Culver City, Maru has a café in Beverly Hills, Alana’s and Dayglow each have one in West Hollywood, Groundwork has one in Santa Monica, and Menotti’s has a shop in Tokyo. Civil’s Studio City café and Groundwork’s North Hollywood café are inside the city, in the San Fernando Valley.

Which coffees come from Mexico? Civil roasts nothing else, with lots from Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Veracruz, Alana’s newest release is from Oaxaca, Dayglow’s own range includes a honey Geisha and a washed Garnica from Veracruz, and Menotti’s V.S.E.B. blend pairs Ethiopia Shakiso with Mexico Jaguar.