There’s just something about setting up at a coffee shop and being surrounded by a low key buzz of energy (plus that jolt of caffeine) that helps me focus on days where my mind is prone to distraction. Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time exploring the coffee shops of Los Angeles. Living in Larchmont, most of these coffee shops are within a short drive from my house in neighborhoods like Hollywood, Koreatown, WeHo and Silver Lake.

Now, everyone has their own coffee preferences – espresso vs drip, milk vs black, whole vs oat, etcetera. My go-to order nowadays is an iced oat milk latte or a cappuccino. So, when I say the coffee is great at all of these spots – I mean that their iced oat milk lattes are perfection. I have likely never had their drip coffee 🙂

• Sightglass Coffee is a gorgeous, spacious café and coffee roaster southwest of Hollywood. Their coffee is great, they have a ton of both indoor and outdoor seating, and they serve solid food as well. My personal favorite is the vanilla iced coffee with their housemade vanilla paste. Parking is a mix of meter and street, and it’s usually busy. One thing to note is they don’t offer Wifi, so have your hotspot ready.
• Kaffee Bohnen is just east of Koreatown, in Pico-Union, and a relatively quiet café that is fantastic to work from. There are a few big tables which have outlets on each end, which I rarely see at coffee shops. They offer a mix of pastries, and I highly recommend the ham and cheese croissant – warmed up, of course. Bonus – they have their own small, indoor parking garage!
• Neighborhood is a very cute and Instagrammable café on La Brea in the Mid-Wilshire area. It is fairly small, but about half the seating is outside in a small courtyard patio, so you’re slightly removed from the busy street if you decide to sit outside. They get their pastries from Sugarbloom Bakery, and *wow* their Kimchi SPAM musubi croissant is incredible and so unique!
• Document Coffee Bar in Koreatown is so hidden you could walk right past it. This is a meet-a-friend-for-coffee kind of place, unless they’ve added more seating since I was last there. Their coffee is great through!
• Dinosaur Coffee in Silver Lake is a cute, unpretentious coffee shop that has both indoor and outdoor seating and – mini dinosaurs all over! It’s generally fairly quiet and nice to work from.
• Laveta in Echo Park is so modern and minimal. So sleek in that inside, they pretty much just have a bench? But no worries, they have a bunch of seating outside, and it’s LA…so you can almost always sit outside. There’s a small parking lot there, or else you can usually find some street parking.
• Alana’s in West Hollywood. They have an awesome location in Mar Vista as well, but for those of us decently east of the 405, this location is more convenient. It’s small, but there has always been a seat somewhere and people tend to cycle out fairly quickly. They offer Wifi, some pastries, and have a teensy outdoor patio in back. I would recommend parking in the big parking garage next to the West Hollywood Library rather than circling for metered street parking.
• Coffee for Sasquatch is also a great place to work in Central LA, on the corner of Melrose and La Brea. They have minimal seating, but I usually find a spot. Their coffee is great, and they always have some fun specialty drinks. Also, what’s not to love about the huge sasquatch on the wall!