Destroyer ★ 4.5
Jordan Kahn's Destroyer in Culver City, Los Angeles plates Nordic-influenced breakfast and lunch. A morning cafe by the chef behind Vespertine.
Signature drink: Specialty filter
Intelligentsia Coffee on Abbot Kinney, Venice, Los Angeles set the LA aesthetic for high-design third-wave cafes when it opened in 2009. Still pulls strong shots.
Address: 1331 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291, Los Angeles
Jordan Kahn's Destroyer in Culver City, Los Angeles plates Nordic-influenced breakfast and lunch. A morning cafe by the chef behind Vespertine.
Signature drink: Specialty filter
Go Get Em Tiger on Larchmont, Los Angeles is one of the original LA third-wave cafes, popularised the almond-macadamia latte and a clean Probat roast.
Signature drink: Iced almond macadamia latte
Yeekai Lim's Cognoscenti Coffee in Culver City, Los Angeles pours single-origin espresso since 2010 from a 50-square-foot bar. A reference cafe in LA.
Signature drink: Single-origin espresso
Joonmo Kim and Jacob Park's Maru Coffee in Los Feliz, Los Angeles pulls a five-shot cortado from Korean-Californian roasts in a 12-seat minimalist room.
Signature drink: Cortado
Stereoscope Coffee in Echo Park, Los Angeles is a Fullerton roaster's Sunset Boulevard outpost in a tall-ceiling warehouse, with the city's best workspace setup for a cafe.
Signature drink: Single-origin filter
Menotti's Coffee Stop on Windward Avenue, Venice, Los Angeles is the Westside's tightest pour, a five-stool counter half a block from Venice Beach.
Signature drink: Espresso