Calm your commute with a quick brew from Cognoscenti Coffee, with locations in downtown L.A. and Culver City.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
13 convenient coffee shops near L.A. freeways to ease your daily commute
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It’s hard to avoid traffic in Los Angeles, especially if you’re faced with a daily freeway commute. A playlist, podcast or phone call can help pass the time, but when you live in one of the best coffee cities in the world, a quick detour for caffeine comes in handy.
Crawling up the 110? A chilled latte from a quaint Chinatown coffee shop (ironically located across the street from where the movie “Rush Hour” was filmed) is an offramp away. Before you merge onto the Pacific Coast Highway, find a hip Santa Monica coffee roaster with a lineup of breakfast burritos.
Whether gridlocked on the 5 or inching toward the 405-101 interchange, skip the heavy traffic with 13 coffee shops conveniently located near L.A.’s major freeways.
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Laidrey
Encino Coffee $$
(Omari Allen)
The aroma of toasted nuts fills the air at Laidrey, a charming corner cafe in Encino near the 101 Freeway that offers fine-tuned espresso drinks, specialty coffees and tea lattes. Owner Gacia Tachejian started Laidrey in her home garage in 2020, launched its first bricks-and-mortar in 2023 and has since opened a second location in Tarzana. Take a break from rush hour to experience coffee sourced from South America, Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea. The iced matcha latte topped with house vanilla foam is a standout, along with the honey latte with locally sourced honey. If you prefer coffee without extra fixings, the medium-roast pour-over from Ethiopia delivers a smooth sip. Laidrey’s menu includes croissants, cakes, other pastries and breakfast and lunch bites. Check out the cafe’s latest location in Agoura Hills, which recently opened near the 101 Freeway.
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How's It Going To End?
Glendale Coffee $
(Omari Allen)
A Midcentury Modern cafe and garden brews coffee for the community of Montrose, in a building once occupied by a dry-cleaning business. How’s It Going To End? (or HIGTE, for short) feels like a Palm Springs getaway but is only minutes from the 210 Freeway. Owners Michelle and Ben Hantoot, founders of Dinosaur Coffee in Silver Lake, offer a simple menu of full-bodied espresso drinks, fresh tonics and specialty lattes with coffee beans supplied by La Cabra in Copenhagen and Heart Coffee Roasters in Portland, and roasted in Brooklyn. The matcha latte is a highlight; rich, earthy and energizing without being overly bitter. Round out your visit with a pastry from Friends & Family, and if you’re not in a rush, sip your coffee atop one of the large boulders in the spacious garden patio.
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Highlight Coffee
Glendale Coffee $
(Omari Allen)
An easygoing cafe near the 134 Freeway makes lattes and pour-overs with coffee beans sourced from El Salvador, Brazil, Costa Rica and Colombia. Highlight Coffee comes from Frank Kim, a coffee industry veteran and former general manager of Cafe Demitasse. Pause your commute for an orange vanilla or butterscotch latte, or a Nathan Palmer with lemonade and iced coffee. Nearby, Highlight Coffee has a second, more spacious Pasadena location close to the 210 Freeway, which recently reopened following the Eaton wildfires.
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Civil Coffee
Highland Park Coffee $
(Omari Allen)
Brothers Alan and Alex Morales have made it their mission to share the rich coffee traditions of Latin America, with Mexican beans as the focus. A short drive from the 110 Freeway, Civil Coffee roasts its beans in-house, with classic coffee drinks and specialties like the iced mocha latte with house-made ganache. The coffee shop also offers tea lattes, including Liquid Gold with ceremonial-grade matcha, cashew-almond milk and house-made lavender syrup. Complete your order with the signature avocado toast on a slice of Bub and Grandma’s sourdough bread. Civil Coffee has two additional locations in downtown L.A. and Studio City.
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Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen
Eagle Rock Coffee Breakfast/Lunch $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The cafe from partners Yonnie Hagos and Ajay Relan with actor and producer Issa Rae, offers an uplifting setting for coffee drinkers and remote workers. Now with four locations, including one perched in Eagle Rock near the 2 Freeway, Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen serves a lineup of brews with beans sourced from Brazil, Honduras and Ethiopia, alongside a brunchy California-soul menu. The signature Slauson Brew is a well-rounded medium roast with notes of dark chocolate, caramel and roasted almond, but for something more complex, try the Black Rose latte with activated charcoal and housemade rosewater syrup. If you’re looking for a bite, the Bangin’ Breakfast sandwich is an excellent pairing with your morning coffee.
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Thank You Coffee
Chinatown Coffee $
(Omari Allen)
Interrupt rush hour with a stop at this Chinatown cafe that shares space with Paper Plant Co., a crafty stationery shop. Founder Jonathan Yang worked in the coffee industry for over a decade before partnering with Matt Chung and Cody Wang to open Thank You Coffee in 2020. The trio serves drip coffees, espresso drinks and teas, plus specialty items that pay homage to the surrounding neighborhood, like the You’re Welcome latte with lapsang souchong and chicory pecan bitters and the Five Spice latte with a house spice blend, Sichuan peppercorn and MSG. A short food menu with overnight oats, a turkey avocado sandwich and a handful of topped toasts is available if you’re also grabbing breakfast on the way to work.
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Etiquette Coffee
Downtown L.A. Coffee $
(Etiquette Coffee )
Tucked away in L.A.’s Arts District, down the street from the 10 Freeway, Etiquette Coffee provides an inviting atmosphere for commuting Angelenos, with a sleek interior and spacious shaded patio. Master barber Randall Aquilina owns the coffee shop and Etiquette Barbers next door, both part of a community-oriented business collective called Los Angeles Academy. Beans come from Madlab Coffee Roasters and Etiquette uses the bourbon-flavored Dolly Blend for espresso drinks, which carries notes of sweet honey, apple pie and chocolate. The full menu includes specialty lattes, teas, juices, fresh-baked pastries, breakfast burritos and sandwiches from Uncle Paulie’s.
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Kumquat Coffee
Downtown L.A. Coffee $
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Next to the 110 Freeway in downtown L.A., a relaxing cafe offers momentary respite from rush hour. Andres Jinhan “A.J.” Kim and Scott Sohn, who opened the first location of Kumquat on York Boulevard in 2018 and also run Loquat Coffee in Highland Park, are known for highlighting small-batch roasters from all over the world. At the Figueroa Street outpost, where ambient music creates a chill atmosphere, baristas serve simple espresso drinks alongside house specialties like Cloudy (With A Chance of Peanuts), with espresso, peanut butter foam, cold milk and sprinkled with cocoa nibs.
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10 Speed Coffee
Sawtelle Coffee $
(Omari Allen )
Founded by Gideon Kleinman and Robbie Schaeffer, 10 Speed Coffee offers micro-batch coffee in a studious atmosphere with upbeat music, bicycles as wall art and plentiful seating on Sawtelle Boulevard. Beans sourced from Guatemala, Kenya and Papua New Guinea are roasted at Pedalers Fork in Calabasas. The coffee menu skews simple with options such as the Kickstand, a drip coffee with notes of red berry and dark chocolate. An extensive list of teas and caffeine-free drinks is available, including ceremonial-grade matcha and a turmeric latte.
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goodboybob
Santa Monica Coffee $
(Sarah King)
Erich Joiner and Ryan Fisher opened goodboybob Coffee Roasters in 2017 as an escape for scriptwriters, editors and other film industry types who work in the surrounding offices. The shop now serves coffee drinkers at a second location in Manhattan Beach, both focusing on single-origin beans roasted locally in small batches. Take refuge from rush hour in this comfortable cafe that brews fruit-forward pour-overs and matcha with house-made guava and marzipan syrup. Complete your morning refuel with one of five breakfast burrito options. Follow a sidewalk sign near the entrance of an alley at the intersection of Broadway and 21st Street to find the cafe.
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Cognoscenti Coffee Bar
Culver City Coffee
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
At Cognoscenti Coffee, architect-turned-owner Yeekai Lim has created a relaxing setting for sipping standard espresso drinks and flavored lattes. Calm your commute with coffee beans harvested by family-owned farms in South America and roasted at Cognoscenti’s City Market South location — one of two additional outposts in downtown L.A. Inside the minimalist Culver City shop (not far from the 10) with plentiful street parking, grab an espresso drink made with the signature Hoot Blend, offering notes of toffee, graham cracker, orange and date. Matcha tea is available, along with Straus vanilla ice cream affogatos and breakfast and lunch bites. Note for pastry lovers: They sell out fast, so grab one before the rush-hour crowd arrives.
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Coffee Del Mundo
Vermont Knolls Coffee
(Carlin Stiehl / For De Los)
If you’re heading south on the 110 toward San Pedro, make a stop at one of L.A.’s best Black-owned coffee shops. Owner Jonathan Kinnard opened Coffee Del Mundo in 2018, offering dairy-free cold brews and standard coffee drinks roasted on-site. Beans here are primarily sourced from the “coffee belt,” which encompasses microclimates around the world ideal for growing coffee. The cafe aims to highlight the cultures and farmers who reside in those areas and are often overlooked, including cold brews that let you experience unique beans from Vietnam, Ethiopia, South America and Mexico. The iced cacao with El Salvadoran coffee, cacao drizzle and oat milk is a refreshing pick for a hot day. Coffee Del Mundo also sells pre-bottled cold brews, coffee pods and packaged whole beans. Be sure to check out the second location, now open in Watts.
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The Boy & the Bear
Westchester Coffee $
Single-origin Colombian coffee awaits at The Boy & The Bear, a local chain with seven locations throughout Los Angeles. Along the Pacific Coast Highway sits the original flagship location opened in 2016 by owner Andrés Piñeros, who previously ran a coffee cart in his hometown of Villavicencio, Colombia. L.A.’s limited options for high-quality Colombian coffee inspired Piñeros to focus exclusively on coffee beans from his home country. Inside the PCH location, black-painted walls and wood finishes create a calming ambience. Coffee beans are roasted three times a week, coating the air with complex nutty aromas. Classic cafe drinks and loose-leaf teas are the focus here, with vanilla, vegan mocha and salted caramel syrups available for sweetening your lattes. The coffee shop offers plenty of indoor and outdoor seating with additional locations near freeways in Gardena, Westchester, Sherman Oaks and Pasadena.
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