Ground down in downtown
It’s a friendly, laid-back place -- a cozy hole in the wall where locals can gather to sip latte and share neighborhood gossip.
But the talk Friday at the tiny Bishop coffee shop in downtown Los Angeles was about how gentrification can send a business soaring. And then turn around and slam it straight into the ground.
That’s what happened to the Bishop, which closed its doors Friday night -- a victim of its neighborhood’s success.
The 300-square-foot shop opened two years ago in a landmark building at 816 S. Grand Ave. that was being converted from a parking garage into 49 trendy lofts.
The building’s leasing agent, Suze Lewis, was so impressed with the revitalization of the 83-year-old beaux-arts building and the character of newcomers moving in that she rented part of its ground floor and turned it into the coffee shop.
The future seemed bright: More lofts and luxury apartments were opening nearby, and a Ralphs grocery store planned for the neighborhood was certain to draw more people to the area.
The long-awaited supermarket opened July 20. And the bottom fell out for Lewis and her shop.
“When I walked into Ralphs for the first time, half of me said, ‘This is the coolest thing.’ The other half of me said, ‘Uh-oh,’ ” she said. “I had no idea they were going to be so upscale.”
Besides groceries, the market a block away from her shop had a coffee bar, a sushi bar, a salad bar, a full deli, a sandwich counter and an Asian food bar. Within weeks, the new 50,000-square-foot Fresh Faire outlet had become one of Ralphs’ top stores, doing a reported $1 million in business weekly.
Lewis’ business immediately dropped by half, to about 100 patrons a day buying a cup of coffee or tea, or a sandwich or a salad.
So on Friday she spent the day saying goodbye to the customers who had stayed.
“This place has been amazing. It had become an institution,” said Janessa Anderson, a music production company hospitality manager who lives in a loft above the Bishop.
“People who came here were like family,” Anderson said.
Elaine Liu, a fashion design student whose apartment is across the street from Lewis’ shop, said she first met people who have become her closest friends while sitting at the Bishop’s small sidewalk tables.
“Here you want to sit and talk,” Liu said. “Suze was one of the first ‘family’ members that I met when I moved to L.A.”
Nursing his last coffee from Bishop’s, Andrew Somerville called the tiny shop -- lined with shelves of used paperback books that Lewis set up as a “trading library” -- his second home.
“It just seems a crying shame that a place like this is closing,” said Somerville, who lives in Inglewood and works downtown as an environmental noise consultant.
Barista Anthony Swindell, who is one of three Bishop employees, said he saw the end coming the first week Ralphs opened.
“I don’t have any animosity. I understand the harsh realities of capitalism,” he said. “But it’s hard to see big business come in and destroy mom-and-pop businesses like this.”
Visiting New Yorker Chris Bunatta, a musician and disc jockey who frequently travels here, said tiny shops like Lewis’ add much to a city.
“A place like this brings soul, and L.A. doesn’t have much of that. I’ll be very curious to walk back through here three years from now and see what this place has become,” Bunatta said.
“But I’m totally in love with Ralphs,” he confessed. “It’s a high-end experience. L.A.’s got us beat on that.”
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