Los Angeles · Downtown & Arts District
Cafés in Downtown & Arts District
Donuts in Japanese Village Plaza, roasteries on Mateo Street and Santa Fe Avenue, a pandan latte in Chinatown and coffee under Grand Central Market.
Downtown Los Angeles is several neighborhoods with coffee of their own. Little Tokyo, a National Historic Landmark District since 1995, runs from First to Third Street between Los Angeles and Alameda streets.1 East of Alameda, the Arts District stretches to the Los Angeles River, and Chinatown lies to the north, where a Chinese gateway spans Broadway at Cesar Chavez Avenue.23
Between them, the Historic Core and the Financial District have the office-hours cafés: espresso counters in lobbies along Grand Avenue, Figueroa and Seventh Street that close by mid-afternoon. The Little Tokyo/Arts District Metro station, moved underground for the Regional Connector, reopened on June 16, 2023, and the A and E lines stop there.1
Local tip: Downtown's office-tower cafés close early: for coffee after 18:00, head to Little Tokyo's East 2nd Street or BASE on South Broadway, both open until 22:00.
At a glance
142Cafés listed
31With opening hours
07:00Earliest opening
23:00Latest closing
- Opens earliest: Boxx Coffee Roasters Co., from 07:00 (Daily 07:00–18:00).
- Closes latest: Millet Crepe, until 23:00 (Mon–Thu 12:00–22:30 · Fri–Sat 12:00–23:00 · Sun 12:00–22:30).
- Most listed streets: S Hope St (7), S Spring St (6), North Broadway (5).
- Most common features: outdoor seating (9%), bakery café (6%), wi-fi (5%).
BASE
- Wi-Fi
- Outdoor seating
- Air-con
- Toilets
- Open late
Boxx Coffee Roasters Co.
Cafe Dulce
- Wi-Fi
- Outdoor seating
- Indoor seating
- Wheelchair access
- Bakery café
Cafe Dulce Dos
Chado Tea Room
Coffee at Space
Colburn Café
DAMO
endorffeine
Heavy Water Coffee Shop
Marie's Coffee & Deli
Matcha Ren
Millet Crepe
Miss Cheese
- Bubble tea
- Open late
Nice Coffee
One Piece Cafe
- Outdoor seating
- Takeaway
- Air-con
- Wheelchair access
- Toilets
- Open late
Pitchoun
sandcouch cafe
- Toilets
- Brunch
Songbird Cafe
SORO Coffee
Steep
Thank You Coffee
The California Endowment Courtyard Cafe
The Wheelhouse
- Outdoor seating
- Smoking allowed
Vees Cafe
Virtu Coffee
Wonder Bakery
- Card payment
- Bakery café
Cafe Integral at Freehand Los Angeles
Hot Potato Haus and Cafe
Minon Cake
- Bubble tea
- Bakery café
7th Street Café
Addy's Cafe
Aladdin Coffee Shop
American Tea Room
Andante Coffee
Nothing matches those filters here. See all cafés in Los Angeles.
Coffee chains in Downtown & Arts District
Chain
Starbucks
Show 27 locations
- Downtown & Arts District
- 1090 Wilshire Boulevard
- 1111 South Grand Avenue
- 1149 S Hill St (12th & Hill, Los Angel, Es(At&T Bldg))
- 120 S. Los Angeles Street
- 1201 S Figueroa St
- 1201 S Figueroa St (Lacc-West Hall)
- 1251 South Grand Avenue
- 138 S Central Ave O
- 1401 Alameda St
- 217 North Hill Street
- 300 E. 9th Street Fashion District
- 300 S Santa Fe Ave
- 350 South Grand Avenue
- 400 S Broadway
- 445 S. Figueroa
- 555 W 5th St
- 555 West 5th Street
- 603 S Spring St
- 639 Cesar E Chavez Avenue
- 700 West 7th Street
- 735 South Figueroa Street
- 760-762 S Broadway
- 800 North Alameda StreetMon–Fri 04:00–22:00 · Sat–Sun 04:30–21:00
- 800 West Olympic Boulevard
- 801 S Olive St
- 899 Francisco St
Chain
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Chain
Alfred Coffee
- Alfred's Coffeehouse
- 714 Traction AvenueMon–Fri 06:30–16:00 · Sat–Sun 07:00–17:00
Chain
Blue Bottle Coffee
- 300 South BroadwayMon–Fri 07:00–18:00 · Sat–Sun 07:00–19:00
- 582 Mateo Street
Chain
Peet's Coffee
Chain
Groundwork Coffee Co.
- 1201 S Figueroa St
- 811 Traction AvenueMon–Thu 06:00–15:00 · Fri–Sun 06:00–16:00
Chain
Go Get Em Tiger
Chain
Bluestone Lane
Chain
Tom N Toms Coffee
Chain
Philz Coffee
Chain
Verve Coffee Roasters
- 214 S Main St
- 500 Mateo StreetDaily 07:00–18:00
- 833 South Spring Street
Chain
Ministry of Coffee
Chain
Urth Caffé
Chain
85°C Bakery Cafe
- 700 Wilshire BoulevardMon–Fri 07:00–18:00
Chain
Cognoscenti Coffee
- Cognoscenti Coffee Roastery, 1118 San Julian StreetDaily 08:00–17:00
- 868 South Olive StreetDaily 07:00–14:00
Chain
Maru Coffee
Chain
Tierra Mia Coffee
Chain
Stumptown Coffee Roasters
Chain
Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea
Chain
illy Caffè
Little Tokyo and Japanese Village Plaza
Little Tokyo grew from the 1880s, when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 helped spur Japanese immigration; by 1941 some 30,000 Japanese Americans lived here, and wartime incarceration emptied it from 1942.1 The Japanese American National Museum opened in 1992, fifty years after that order, and Nisei Week fills the streets every August.1
Cafe Dulce at 134 Japanese Village Plaza is known for its green tea donut, and Time Out singled out its Vietnamese iced coffee; its outdoor tables face the plaza.4 It opens at 08:00 and stays open until 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, with Wi-Fi. Chado Tea Room at 369 East 1st Street serves tea daily 11:00–18:00. On East 2nd Street, Millet Crepe at No. 330 and Miss Cheese at No. 310 stay open until 22:00 or later every night.
Arts District roasteries on Mateo Street and Santa Fe Avenue
The Arts District was citrus groves, then rail yards and factories. Artists moved into its empty warehouses from the late 1960s, and a 1981 city ordinance allowed living in former industrial buildings.2 The Southern California Institute of Architecture has occupied the quarter-mile-long 1907 Santa Fe Freight Depot since 2001, and the rebuilt Sixth Street Viaduct opened in 2022.2
Verve's café at 500 Mateo Street is its largest in Los Angeles, with glass walls between the seating, the roastery downstairs and the coffee lab upstairs; it opens daily 07:00–18:00.5 Down the block, Eightfold serves Heart coffee from Portland inside the Factory Place Arts Complex at No. 555, and Maru roasts in view of its customers at 1019 South Santa Fe Avenue.5
Boxx Coffee Roasters, founded in Istanbul in 2015, opened its first American café at 950 East 3rd Street in 2021. It roasts behind the bar and is the Arts District's place for Turkish coffee made the traditional way.5 It opens daily 07:00–18:00 and has Wi-Fi. For the earliest cup, Groundwork at 811 Traction Avenue opens at 06:00.
Chinatown: Far East Plaza and Hill Street
Old Chinatown, on Alameda Street, was demolished in the 1930s to make room for Union Station, and New Chinatown opened just to the north in 1938.3 Jack Benchakul, a barista and former biochemist, opened endorffeine in Far East Plaza, 727 North Broadway, in 2015, pouring Heart coffee and a vanilla pandan latte.6 It opens Monday to Thursday 09:00–18:00 and closes Friday to Sunday.
Thank You Coffee at 938 North Hill Street serves daily 09:00–16:00 with outdoor seating. For later hours, Steep, a tea house at 970 North Broadway, stays open until 23:00 from Wednesday to Sunday, and Aquarela Coffee at 714 North Figueroa Street opens daily 08:00–15:00.
Broadway, Grand Central Market and the office towers
Grand Central Market opened in October 1917 on the ground floor of the Homer Laughlin Building at 317 South Broadway; Bunker Hill shoppers once rode the Angels Flight railway down to it.7 G&B Coffee has its counter inside, and Blue Bottle is across the street at No. 300. BASE, at 731 South Broadway, serves daily 10:00–22:00 with Wi-Fi.
West of Broadway the cafés keep office hours. Cognoscenti at 868 South Olive Street serves daily 07:00–14:00, Nice Coffee at 515 South Flower Street opens weekdays 07:00–16:00, and Cafe Integral in the Freehand hotel at 416 West 8th Street serves daily 07:00–15:30 with Wi-Fi.
Sources
- Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
- Arts District, Los Angeles, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
- Chinatown, Los Angeles, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
- Café Dulce (August 26, 2013), Time Out Los Angeles, accessed October 2026
- The Sprudge Guide to Coffee in the Los Angeles Arts District (Valorie Clark, July 26, 2023), Sprudge, accessed October 2026
- Endorffeine Part of Culinary Resurgence in L.A.'s Chinatown (September 22, 2015), Daily Coffee News, accessed October 2026
- Grand Central Market, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
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107 cafésIn Downtown & Arts District, also browse: Specialty coffee Outdoor seating Wi-Fi Bakery cafés Open late Brunch
FAQ
Downtown & Arts District cafés: questions
What is Cafe Dulce in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, known for?
Cafe Dulce, at 134 Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo, is known for its green tea donut and its Vietnamese iced coffee, and its outdoor tables face the plaza. It opens at 08:00 every day and stays open until 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.
Which cafés in the Los Angeles Arts District roast their own coffee?
Verve at 500 Mateo Street has a roastery downstairs and a coffee lab upstairs, Maru roasts in view of its customers at 1019 South Santa Fe Avenue, and Boxx Coffee Roasters at 950 East 3rd Street roasts behind the bar. Boxx, founded in Istanbul in 2015, also makes Turkish coffee the traditional way.
Where can you get coffee in Chinatown, Los Angeles?
Endorffeine in Far East Plaza at 727 North Broadway, opened in 2015 by the barista Jack Benchakul, serves Heart coffee and a vanilla pandan latte from Monday to Thursday. Thank You Coffee at 938 North Hill Street opens daily 09:00–16:00, and Steep on North Broadway serves tea until 23:00 from Wednesday to Sunday.
For café owners
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