When popular sitcoms like “Friends” and “Gilmore Girls” debuted in the ’90s and early aughts, they helped shape mainstream understanding of coffee shops as essential third spaces, places where we can escape the stresses of life and catch up with friends over a hot cup of Joe. However, by featuring predominantly white casts, these shows and others like them sent a subtle message as to who coffee culture is meant for.
Here in Los Angeles, a dedicated group of Black coffee shop owners and roasters are on a mission to make the industry more diverse and inclusive, offering spaces that unapologetically celebrate Black and brown cultures, with coffee programs that involve intentional sourcing from countries like Ethiopia and Brazil.
“[These] are not just coffee shops,” said LaNisa Williams of Barista Life L.A. “These are spaces where amazing things happen. We’re giving back to the community through coffee shops.”
Williams started #BlackInBrew in June 2020 to raise awareness of Black coffee professionals and build community in the wake of the George Floyd protests. Today she consults and provides education and training for many of L.A.’s coffee shops, with an emphasis on uplifting those who have not historically been represented in the industry.
Given that coffee is historically grown by Black, brown and Indigenous people, Williams said there’s an element of reclamation at many Black-owned coffee shops, with an intention of using that foundation to move the industry forward.
Jonathan Kinnard, founder of Coffee Del Mundo in South L.A., places a heavy emphasis on coffee origin education. “We want you to be very aware that coffee is not a European thing. It’s an Ethiopian thing. It’s a Colombian thing. It’s a Guatemalan thing. We take a lot of pride in that, and we need to honor that if you understand the difficulty of labor that goes into these things,” said Kinnard.
Compton local Geoffrey Martinez of Patria Coffee Roasters sought to center the surrounding BIPOC-majority neighborhood when opening his specialty coffee shop in 2018. A sign near the register reads: “Patria Coffee is a space intended for Communities of Color to share a safe place, free of criminalization and punitive treatment, that is relational and not simply transactional. We aim to uplift the beauty and richness of our cultural identity while offering a dignified coffee experience and quality, respectful of the existing Compton community structure and understandings.”
“They’re creating these spaces so that we feel safe,” Williams said. “We need these spaces for us to be able to express ourselves in our own communities … We are empowering ourselves through ownership and breaking generational curses, showing what happens when we take pride in our Black history.”
Here are 25 Black-owned coffee shops to support across L.A: