There is no shortage of Instagrammable spots in Los Angeles. It’s the land of perpetual sunshine, perpetual blue skies, and perfect landscapes, after all. Some venues, of course, stand out above the rest, though, like Paul Smith’s Pink Wall, Urban Light’s Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Labyrinth Above the Last Bookstore and a little coffee shop known as Alfred Coffee that sits tucked away on one of the most popular blocks. Elegance in Beverly Grove.
Housed in a charming, yellow-painted building at 8428 Melrose Place, the Java Shop is the brainchild of real estate developer Joshua Zad, who ironically doesn’t drink much coffee or tea, as he’s the first to admit. But as a longtime local, I was frustrated by the lack of a common place to grab a cuppa or a good bagel within walking distance of the Tony Melrose Place shopping district.
Not to be confused with the similarly named but much more bustling Melrose Boulevard, tree-lined Melrose Place is one of Los Angeles’ most popular hidden gems. Spanning just three short blocks of gorgeous storefronts housing luxury boutiques, this small road “originated in the ’60s and ’70s,” as the Los Angeles Times reported, “when demand for high-end antique stores flooded along La Cienega.” to St. Since it was a bit more secluded, Melrose Place became a cheaper place to buy in and the area quickly became its own.” Cheaper is no longer a word that can be associated with a site. Currently populated by esteemed names such as Monique Lhuillier, LoveShackFancy, Oscar de la Renta and Santa Maria Novella, the Times reports that this enclave is “a destination for a certain kind of shopper, the kind of person who might use a decorator, a designer or both.”
But not a barista, it seems, because until Zad arrived on the scene, there wasn’t a coffee shop in sight.
