Canyon Coffee Ventures Deeper with First Los Angeles Cafe

Inside the first Canyon Coffee shop, located in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. All images courtesy of Canyon Coffee.

After six years of cultivating cultivating an audience through roasted single-origin coffees and a lifestyle-focused brand, Southern California-based Canyon Coffee has opened its first brick-and-mortar coffee shop in Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood. 

Canyon Coffee COO and Coffee Director James Klapp now leads a production team working with a Loring S35 Kestrel roaster and Ikawa sample roaster for continued wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales, as well as for drip and espresso offerings at the new shop. 

Among the coffee beverages currently on offer are pistachio milk cortados as well as draft lattes in flavors of fig leaf, chai and oat that are accessible through a row of six taps behind the bar.

“The taps enable our team to provide quick service of delicious drinks, that can be prepped to exact recipes in the calm environment in the back-of-house,” Canyon Coffee Co-Founder Casey Wojtalewicz told Daily Coffee News. “The popularity of the drinks on tap also frees up baristas to put a little more time and effort into espresso.”

Further behind the counter, next to the shop’s La Marzocco espresso machine and pair of Victoria Arduino Mythos II grinders, a bright orange citrus squeezer provides a pop of color amidst an otherwise serene expanse of white counters and creamy white walls offset by walls clad in Douglas Fir paneling. The bar and cabinetry are constructed of natural birch.

Wojtalewicz said the colors and materials were selected to creare senses of calm and warmth. That sense is enhanced by a vinyl record player along the back counter connected to an audio system designed by Los Angeles record shop In Sheep’s Clothing.

“To make the space feel open, we set all counters at 34 inches high, and created an open island-style bar for customers to sit and enjoy the shop from,” said Wojtalewicz, the former drummer for the indie beach pop band Cayucas. “To do this, we designed a flow for all espresso, coffee and tea equipment to go on the back bar.”

Chef James Wayman consulted on a seasonal menu of prepped-to-order foods that includes produce and spread-laden sandwiches, toasts and tartines, with cakes, cookies and pastries rounding out the menu, care of baker Sasha Piligian.

Experimentation with different cold brew and flash brew recipes for rotating through the tap system is ongoing. The cafe will soon host pop-ups by night featuring other local food and beverage businesses, while expansion on Canyon Coffee’s wholesale front will soon include a move soon into a new production space.

“We’re very excited about completing our new roasting facility and offices in DTLA this year, and continuing to grow our wholesale and online coffee business,” said Wojtalewicz. “We care about providing good jobs and careers in coffee, and we believe doing that requires achieving a certain size to enable room to grow for our team.”

Canyon Coffee is located at 1559 Echo Park Ave in Los Angeles. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here.