Carla Cafe

Carla Cafe started with chicken aioli sandwiches assembled at home and sold through Instagram DMs, which is about as Los Angeles an origin story as exists. Former tech worker Avi Ahdoot founded it and runs it with Jess. The matcha is imported from Japan and ceremonial grade, sitting alongside real Northern Italian style espresso, so both halves of the drinks board are taken seriously. It runs fast casual, covering coffee and matcha through breakfast and lunch, which makes it a genuinely useful room to have on the block. There are two now: the original on West 3rd Street, and a second inside Watt Plaza on Century Park East in Century City. We would get the matcha and a sandwich anyway.