The world of LA coffee will be one day divided into two periods BI and AI, that's Before Intelligentsia and After Intelligentsia. Since the opening of the Chicago-based third wave coffee chain in Silveralke in 2007, our collective coffee fortunes have continued to grow. It seems that every time I turn around, there is a new cafe serving really good espresso drinks. It's a whole new world of LA coffee.My latest coffee excursion was to Bru Coffee Bar in Los Feliz, where they craft espresso drinks from coffee roasted by San Francisco's Ritual Roasters. The cappuccino was nicely textured with a very nice flavor, including some tannins reaching through the milk to give a nice but not overwhelming tang. Espresso had good crema but was a bit on the weak side, and the wait can be very long, even when there aren't that many customers, so check it out in the off hours.
Bru Coffee Bar
1866 North Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027-4215
(323) 664-7500
For my money, Ritual's beans routinely stop Intelligentsia's. I think Intelligentsia pairs great with milk (amazingly well, truth be told), but for just an espresso I always encounter this raisiny note that I don't dig.
ReplyDeleteI've been making my way through a pound of Urth's Dolce - Urth is obviously a well-known quantity and I'm not as in love with their coffee as I used to be - but I'm really digging the Dolce. It's a very bright espresso; it really has some nice versatility with milk - dosing really gives you a bunch of different profiles.