Los Angeles Coffee Spots: Hollywood & Silver Lake

Since I work from home and my apartment has no air-conditioning, I often seek out an urban oasis with temperatures 72° or below.

Los Angeles is full of cafés, from funky hipster havens with lumpy couches to modern caffeine fueling stations with marble countertops. As long as you know the word latte you can settle in and get comfortable. The eavesdropping is also hilarious but that's for another post.

These are my favorite spots so far.

Demitasse (Hollywood)

This place always makes me feel fancy. 💅🏽☕️ Maybe it's the modern architecture or the icy cool temperatures. ❄️

Take out your laptop, and put on your glasses. It's the perfect place to work or have a business meeting. I think the clean lines give me a clear head.

Demitasse also has a surprising selection, including coffees flavored with blood oranges and other fruits. My favorite drink is the iced mint cubano - it's made with real, muddled mint leaves.

The Wi-Fi password is COFFEE00.

Javista Organic Coffee Bar (Hollywood)

Modern and cozy at Javista Organic Coffee

This place has amazing coffee. I had an iced latte and it was nutty and flavorful. 😌

Despite having such high-quality espresso, this is a pretty mainstream place. So you'll see people on dates, studying, or hanging out.

This is one of those places where if someone is getting up from the table to leave, you need to walk over and put your stuff down. 🚨 It's a lot like parking at The Grove. So be ready!

The Wi-Fi password is their phone number.

Cafecito Organico (Silver Lake)

I go here when I'm not desperate for air conditioning because they don't have it… it's one big patio. But this place is a real gem. The decor is like a cute hipster attic apartment put outside to bake in the sun. It's an Instagram paradise. 📸

The crowd is always a touch cooler than you are, but that's okay. 😎 Soak it in. Take a seat on the big comfy couch.

There is a queer, political vibe in the air, and I'm sure some powerful ideas have been thought up between those palm trees.

This would be a good place to have a meeting or hang out with a friend. There's lots of street parking available in the neighborhood surrounding.

Red Dragon (Silver Lake)

Very funky and entertaining. They didn't even finish painting the ceiling cobalt blue, and it looked intentional. I was getting a Knights of Camelot + graffiti vibe. 😂

They just moved to a new location from across the street. To me, it doesn't feel like a café from LA. It feels more like a café from a small college town, complete with students reading textbooks in the corner.

But the service that I had was excellent, and you can blend your own iced teas. I picked out Rooibos and asked what went well with it. The barista said she thought peach would be good, and offered me a sniff from the jar. The final creation was delicious and didn't even need sweetener.

Naturally, this place had no air conditioning. But the overhead fan did the trick enough for me to stay a couple hours. There is lots of street parking during the daytime in this residential neighborhood.

Bourgeois Pig (Franklin Village)

It feels more like a dive bar than a café here, but I'm not complaining. There's a disco ball spinning at 9:30 AM and the walls are painted a dark color. This would be a fun place to catch up with a friend about the night before or as an extension of the night before… 🔮

The latte was good and the quiche Lorraine was okay. But I give it an A for ambience. Not a good place to get work done because of the club lighting.

Wi-Fi requires a ticket from the barista. Street parking was very easy on the block during the daytime on a weekend.