Plan

A small coffee bar on Cesar Chavez two doors from The Paramount, doing espresso alongside drinks built on cafe de olla, horchata and Mexican chocolate. The pastries come in from nearby bakeries and there are a few tables and a counter. It opens at seven and shuts at six, so it is the morning and afternoon answer on this block.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 6pm. Sat, 7am to 4pm. Closed Sun

The Boyle Heights branch of a Mexican bakery started by two friends from Mexico City, on Boyle Avenue just north of First Street. The case holds conchas and tres leches, with pan de muerto in season. The coffee is their own roast. It opens at six in the morning and stays open until ten at night every day, which on this side of the river is unusual.

Mon to Sat, 6am to 10pm. Sun, 7am to 10pm

The newest of the three Rose Park Roasters cafes, on Ocean Boulevard a couple of blocks from the convention center. They roast their own, mostly light and single origin, and the 6am open makes it the earliest coffee downtown. Seating is indoors with a few tables on the sidewalk. The original shop is still going on 4th Street in Rose Park, which is where the name comes from.

Daily, 6am to 5pm

A Broadway coffeehouse lined floor to ceiling with second-hand books, mismatched armchairs and people who have clearly been in the same seat for three hours. It runs from six in the morning to eleven at night every day, which is a longer day than any cafe in Long Beach keeps. There is beer and wine as well as coffee, plus sandwiches and cake. Nobody will move you along.

Daily, 6am to 11pm

An eight-foot-wide storefront in a building put up for Wells Fargo Bank, one of the oldest multistory buildings in Hollywood. The company roasts its own coffee and there is a short breakfast and lunch menu. Seating is a handful of stools and a bench outside.

Daily 7am to 4pm, kitchen 7:30am to 3pm

The daytime cafe at the Hollywood Roosevelt, rebranded from the Tropicana Café, open 8am to 3pm. The Tropicana Bar beside it runs 9am to 10pm. The pool it looks onto has a bottom hand-painted by David Hockney, and eating here does not require a pool pass.

Daily 8am to 3pm; the Tropicana Bar runs 9am to 10pm

A bright corner cafe on Wilshire a few doors from the Wiltern, with a long bar and enough tables that people work here all day. Multi-roaster pour-overs alongside standard espresso drinks. It is the only serious coffee within sight of the Wilshire and Western corner.

Daily 7am to 6pm

A coffee house one block up from the Warner Grand, with murals by San Pedro painters covering the walls and a player or two on a Friday. It opens at half six in the morning on weekdays, which is earlier than anything else downtown. Order at the counter and take a table or the bench out front.

Mon to Thu, 6:30am to 4pm. Fri to Sun, 7am to 6pm

A café in a 1947 corner building a block up from the water near Point Fermin, with a counter, a pastry case and tables out front. Café de olla, breakfast burritos and quesadillas, and a crowd of people who have walked down from the surrounding streets. It runs seven in the morning to seven at night, every day, which is an unusually long day for this end of San Pedro.

Every day, 7am to 7pm

A counter in the strip at Fairfax and Melrose, opening at 6:30am and running to 6pm every day. Espresso, drip and pastries, with a patio out front that people sit on for an hour at a time. It is the longest daily window of any coffee on this stretch of Fairfax.

Daily 6:30am to 6pm

French-owned by Claire Denis, formerly of Paris, with pastries and croissants, quiche and soups, and a strong vegan and gluten-free list. Half of it is a gift shop and the front is a planted patio.

Monday to Friday 7am to 2pm. Saturday and Sunday 7am to 4pm.

Family owned in upper Topanga village, counter service for organic breakfast and lunch with a market attached selling food and homewares. Juices, smoothies, lattes and wraps. The owners have said they want to add evening service, which they have not done yet.

Daily 8am to 3pm, though one listing says 4:30pm. Call (310) 455-9888 if the last hour matters.

Family-owned in Topanga village since 2000, small and hung with art. Sandwiches made to order, soups and quiche made in the building, bread delivered daily, meat without antibiotics and organic produce where they can get it. There are gluten-free options and a free lot.

Monday to Friday 7am to 3pm. Saturday and Sunday 8am to 3pm.

A coffee shop on North La Brea with a kitchen doing eggs, toast and bowls until half two. Order at the counter, take a number, sit at a long table or outside. It is full of people working and meeting rather than people passing through, and it is the nearest real coffee to either arena.

Every day, 8am to 3pm. Kitchen stops at 2:30pm

A two-person coffee shop on Walnut, off the Main Street strip, run by Henry and Michelle, who put it plainly on their own site: they have been making coffee together for over ten years and married for four. Espresso, drip, a short list of pastries, a handful of seats. It is the kind of place where the person pulling the shot is the owner, which is not true of anything else within walking distance of the cinema.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 5pm. Sat, 8am to 4pm. Sun, 8am to 3pm

A coffeehouse on Magnolia a block off Lankershim that sells whole pies and slices, sweet and savory, and runs live music on a small stage most nights of the week with no cover. Opens at 9am, which makes it the default place in the NoHo Arts District to sit for an hour before a curtain. Tables fill with people working and the music starts in the evening without anybody clearing the laptops out.

Mon to Wed, 9am to 8:30pm. Thu, 9am to 9pm. Fri and Sat, 8:30am to 9pm. Sun, 9am to 9pm

A small café on the same block of Lankershim as the theater, open 8am to 8pm seven days. They make crepes to order, savory and sweet, along with French omelettes, baklava and sandwiches, and the coffee runs to the flavored end of the spectrum. Plain filter is on the board too. It is counter order, then sit.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 8pm. Sat and Sun, 8am to 8pm

The coffee shop occupies the corner storefront at Main and Bay that was Jeff Ho Surfboards and Zephyr Productions, the shop the Z-Boys came out of. Alva boards hang on the wall alongside the espresso machine. Breakfast burritos are the volume order.

Daily, 7am to 2pm

A coffee bar on 32nd Street a few doors from the Shrine, in a converted house with a patio out front. Espresso, drip, a short pastry case and a lot of students with laptops. It closes at three in the afternoon and does not open on weekends, which is the whole constraint on using it.

Mon to Fri, 8am to 3pm. Closed Sat and Sun

A coffee shop that opened on Soledad Canyon in August 2026, which makes it the newest thing on the strip and the only independent espresso counter east of Sierra Highway. Small, bright, a short menu, and the ratings so far are from a few dozen people rather than a few hundred, so read it as a new place rather than an institution. It shuts at 5pm.

Mon to Sat, 8am to 5pm. Sun, 9am to 4pm

Deanna and Geoffrey Martinez had been roasting and wholesaling in Compton since 2012 before they raised close to fifteen thousand dollars on Indiegogo and built out this Alameda Street storefront, which opened in 2018. They buy seasonal coffee from cooperatives and small independent growers and roast it on site. It is a café rather than a tasting exercise, and most of the trade is regulars.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 3pm. Sat and Sun, 8am to 4pm

A coffee bar decorated around horror movies and skateboarding, with pinball and arcade cabinets in the back. Rusty and Jade Valore started the company in Upland in 2015 and opened this Citrus Avenue shop in the fall of 2020. Drip, pour-over and espresso are all here alongside the blended drinks named after horror characters that the place is known for, and it stays open until 10pm every night.

Daily, 6am to 10pm

The original 10 Speed, opened in 2013 in the Pedalers Fork building in Old Town, where they still micro-batch roast everything they sell. It is a walk-up counter with a cycling slant, opens at 6am and closes at 3pm. There is a patio and the sound of the road outside. Beans by the bag if you want them.

Daily, 6am to 3pm

A small independent café behind Old Town on Park Sorrento, near the civic buildings rather than on the main strip. Coffee, pastries and a few breakfast plates, with tables inside and a handful out front. It opens at 7am and shuts at 3pm. Quieter than anything on Calabasas Road and the people in it are locals working.

Daily, 7am to 3pm

One building on Calabasas Road holding a 10 Speed Coffee bar, a scratch kitchen, a bar and a bicycle shop, which works because the Santa Monica Mountains road rides start and end here. Coffee from six in the morning and food through the afternoon. Dinner service runs Thursday through Saturday. Cyclists in kit share the patio with people who drove, and nobody minds.

Mon to Wed, 6am to 3pm. Thu to Sat, 6am to 9pm. Sun, 6am to 3pm

Anya Schodorf, who is from Nicaragua, and her husband Matthew opened this on York Boulevard in 2008. The house drinks lean Central American, including horchata with espresso and a latte campesino built on piloncillo, cinnamon, anise and orange peel.

Daily, 7am to 5pm

A Cuban bakery that has been on this corner of Sunset since 1975, best known for the guava and cheese pastelito and the cubano. It closed in late 2023 and reopened in March 2024 under new owners who kept the menu where it was.

Tue to Sun, 7am to 3pm. Closed Monday

An independent coffee and tea bar on Flower Street, a block off the boulevard, pouring espresso alongside Japanese teas and a matcha list that goes further than most. It opens at seven on weekdays and eight at weekends and keeps going into the evening, which very few cafés around here do. The seating is limited and most people are working or waiting for a to-go cup.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 7:30pm. Sat, 8am to 6pm. Sun, 8am to 7:30pm

A one-person coffee bar tucked into Far East Plaza in Chinatown, run by Jack Benchakul, a former biochemist who trained as a pastry chef before this. He pulls every cup himself, which sets the pace. The space holds a handful of people at a time.

Roughly 9am to 6pm. The open days have shifted more than once, so check before you go

A bakery on Yale Avenue that dates itself to 1916 and has been the Claremont Village's morning counter ever since, with bread, pastry, a short breakfast and lunch menu and coffee to take out onto the sidewalk. The line at eight in the morning is students and faculty in roughly equal measure. It shuts early, at one on Monday and two on Sunday.

Mon, 6:30am to 1pm. Tue, 6:30am to 4pm. Wed to Fri, 6:30am to 6pm. Sat, 7am to 6pm. Sun, 8am to 2pm

A café on Harvard Avenue with a patio under the trees, coffee, sandwiches and soup, and enough students working at the tables that nobody will mind if you sit for an hour. Vegan and gluten-free options are on the board rather than an afterthought. It closes at twenty past four, which is not a typo and is the one thing that decides whether this stop works.

Daily, 8am to 4:20pm

A coffee counter in the middle of Japanese Village Plaza, open since 2010, known for a green tea donut and a bacon-wrapped one. The seating is the plaza itself. It opens at 8am and runs into the evening, which is rare for a coffee place downtown.

Mon to Thu 8am to 7pm. Fri and Sat 8am to 9pm. Sun 8am to 8pm

A small coffee bar on South Main run by a young couple, with a shaded canopy of seats out front and a few tables inside. The drinks lean Mexican, so cafe de olla, horchata, chocolate Mexicano and a dulce de leche latte sit alongside the nitro cold brew. It opens at seven and closes in the early afternoon, which makes it an honest matinee stop and nothing else.

Daily, 7am to 2pm

A coffee house in a converted Tujunga Avenue bungalow with a wooden deck out front and a garden behind it, sharing a complex with a bookshop. Open from seven in the morning until nine at night every day, which is a wider window than almost anything else in this part of the Valley. Full kitchen as well as espresso, so you can actually eat.

Daily, 7am to 9pm

A 1929 beach cottage halfway up Pier Avenue holds this coffee house, with a porch, mismatched tables and a case of sandwiches and cakes made in the back. It opens at six in the morning, earlier than anything else on the street. People bring laptops and nobody moves them along.

Every day from 6am. Closing between 3pm and 6pm depending on the day

The Las Tunas branch of the tea house that started in San Gabriel in 2008 and is the reason honey boba spread across the valley. The tea is brewed in small batches and the boba arrives sitting in honey at the bottom of the cup. There is a short food menu of noodle soups, rice plates and fried snacks, plus shaved ice and soy pudding. Closed Tuesdays and it shuts at half three on Sunday.

Mon, 10:45am to 8pm. Closed Tue. Wed to Sat, 10:45am to 8pm. Sun, 10:45am to 3:30pm

A Taiwanese bakery on South Baldwin where the breads are the point, taro buns and pork floss rolls and milk bread, pulled from the oven through the morning and stacked on trays you walk past with tongs. Coffee and tea are at the register and there are a few tables to sit at. Mooncakes take over the front counter for a few weeks each autumn.

Daily, 8am to 8pm

A corner market on Bronson with a coffee counter and a short kitchen menu, plus a wine and beer selection you can drink in or carry out. The breakfast burrito is the order in the morning and there are nightly specials after that. Tables are indoors and on the sidewalk.

Daily, 8am to 9pm

A cafe on La Cruz just off Sunset, a few steps behind the village center, with a patio and a pastry case. It was one of the buildings that came through the January 2025 fire still standing and it kept serving the neighborhood through the worst of the recovery. Coffee, eggs and sandwiches until five, then it shuts.

Monday to Friday 6:30am to 5pm. Saturday 7am to 5pm. Closed Sunday

The Cuban bakery the Porto family started in 1960 and has run since, now with a Downey branch on Firestone that opened in 2010. You take a number, the line moves fast because six people are working the counter, and you leave with potato balls, cheese rolls and a guava strudel for less than a sandwich costs elsewhere. There is a cafe side with a cafe con leche and tables.

Daily, 6:30am to 8:30pm

Half café and half home furnishings shop on the Riverside and Colfax corner, opened in 1998 by Marie and her son Charles. Organic coffee, cappuccino, herbal tea, fresh orange juice and gelato, served among the furniture and gifts that are also for sale. Soft music and mismatched seating. Nobody hurries you. It shuts at 5pm every day.

Daily, 7am to 5pm

A few tables sit inside this Washington coffee bar west of Vermont. The menu stays with espresso, drip and tea. It opens at half past seven and closes at five, so it is a daytime stop only. Students and people working from a laptop make up most of the trade during the week.

Daily, 7:30am to 5pm

A working bike shop with repair and rentals that also runs a coffee counter and a beer garden, sitting directly on the Los Angeles River bike path in Frogtown. You can rent a bike, ride the river path and come back for a beer.

Mon to Wed 9am to 6pm. Thu to Sun 9am to 9pm