Picked up Handsome Coffee Roasters coffee at Spring for Coffee, Downtown Los Angeles

Driving into Downtown L.A.

Another favorite spot that I picked up coffee from while in Los Angeles is this LITTLE coffee bar called Spring for Coffee.  They have two locations and I searched for their Los Angeles Street location as we drove through Downtown Los Angeles.  Los Angeles is a big city and Spring for Coffee is really tiny sliver among blocks and blocks of businesses.  I had to drive around the block twice to figure out exactly where I should stop.

Can your spot them?
Spring for Coffee
in the Academy Awards Building.

I almost gave up thinking that nothing in the area was open (yet).  It was about 845AM, but it was December 23rd, a Friday.  As we drove around the area, all the shutters of the store fronts were closed.  I thought Spring for Coffee must have been behind one of those rolled down shutters and wondered if we should move on with our journey to Torrance.  It was a good thing that my co-pilot (not navigator because my Google Navigation was handling that), Kelli, spotted the little chalkboard sign just before we gave up.  You might need to look at the full size of the store front photo to find Spring for Coffee.  It is probably easier to spot that shoe shining chair which is just to the left of the entrance to the building.

When I first walked in, I was a bit surprised... Spring for Coffee serves amazingly delicious coffee out of a coffee bar tucked in the corner of an elevator/stairway lobby of this building.  I did not take any photos of the entire operation (I could have by just stepping back a couple of feet).  I will save it for you to see in person when you visit them for coffee! :)  Oh and by the way, I asked the barista what time the shops on the street would open up and he said that they would all normally be open by that time so everyone probably decided to close for the holiday weekend.

I was pleased to see that they were serving the Handsome Coffee Roaster coffees here.  They had the Don Medardo Honduras that I tried the day before at Paper or Plastik and the Ruthagati AA Kenya.  I tried the Ruthagati AA Kenya and loved it.  Their description of the coffee is "Passion Fruit, Nectarines, Juicy Goodness" and that it was!  Juicy Goodness!  Strangely, I am not much of a passion fruit or nectarine lover, but this coffee was delicious.  I was practically finished with my cup before getting back to the car and was tempted to buy a second cup.  Instead, I bought two 12 ounce bags of Handsome Coffee Roasters coffee.

I purchased a bag of the Don Medardo Honduras and a bag of the Ruthagati AA Kenya to bring back to Honolulu.  I wish I remembered to take pictures of the bags of coffee!  I brought the bags over to Beach Bum Cafe and left them there for some friends to try out when they stop in to enjoy Hawaiian Coffee.  I also left the barista at Spring for Coffee a little bag of Aloha Farms Kona Maragogype beans that I brought to LA with me from Beach Bum Cafe.  I hope he liked it.  I wonder what he thought of it.  Hmmmmm???

When I brought the bags of coffee over to Beach Bum Cafe, I did take one photo of the Don Medardo Honduras.  You can see the variety of beans in the coffee.  Looks like there are some peaberry coffee beans in there too.  Doesn't the bag look "handsome"?  I also thought it was cool that each of their coffees had a Twitter handle to follow.  This bag says, "Follow @HCR_DonMedardo" and the Kenya coffee says, "Follow @HCR_Ruthagati".  Being the tweeter that I am, I followed their suggestion and followed both of those and a whole bunch of others that I found.  Now I just need to find the actual coffees!

This might be a good time to mention that I created a foursquare list of coffee places that I <3.  Of course Spring for Coffee made it on that list!  Here is the link: https://foursquare.com/ricknakama/list/coffee-i-3

Spring for Coffee @ 817 South Los Angeles Street | SpringForCoffee.com

http://www.handsomecoffee.com/

http://twitter.com/RickNakama