Coffee Bar

In the old days, college students rallied to fight wars and protest apartheid. But in this cappuccino-conscious culture, a new cause has unleashed the passions of students at Cal State Dominguez Hills: the threatened closure of the popular campus coffee bar called Espresso Yourself. In David and Goliath fashion, the independent coffee bar is fighting to retain a toehold on the Carson campus where most food service is newly controlled by a large management firm.

Real Office Centers, which provides executive suite-style offices for the young and tech-savvy, will set up shop in a Santa Monica office building last occupied by Google. Landlord Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. said Real Office Centers leased all of the 44,260-square-foot building at 604 Arizona Ave. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Hudson sought $3.27 per square foot per month for space in the building, real estate data provider CoStar said. “This property generated significant interest from prospective tenants due to the limited supply of creative office space throughout West Los Angeles,” said Victor Coleman, chief executive of Hudson.

Starbucks Corp. said it has signed a licensing agreement with Albertson's Inc., the nation's No. 2 U.S. supermarket chain, to open more than 100 coffee bars in Albertsons stores. Terms weren't disclosed. Seattle-based Starbucks opened its first coffee bar in an Albertsons store in Boise, Idaho, last week, a spokeswoman said. It will begin selling coffee, teas, pastries, ice cream and other Starbucks merchandise in the others by next year.

Dear Karen: To cover startup costs for a new coffee bar, should I apply for a small-business loan or get a home equity loan? Answer: These days, no entrepreneur can get a small-business loan without substantial collateral and a personal guarantee. So you'll probably have to put up your home equity in either case. However, a coffee shop is an extremely risky venture because of well-heeled competition from chains such as Starbucks and Seattle's Best, said Jeff Williams, chief executive at Bizstarters.

Tricia Galarza-Ramos, 35, who's heard her share of drunk-driving horror stories from her police-officer husband, built a business around the idea that you can have just as much fun at a party sipping a Cuban latte as a Mojito cocktail. She runs America's Cup, a mobile espresso bar that can be rented, at $100 an hour, for private parties. Galarza-Ramos will even name the coffee drinks at her bar especially for the event.

It's probably the only art gallery in the county where one can find an impromptu game of soccer, played with wadded aluminum foil, at 3 in the morning. It's certainly the only one where you'll hear the Swamp Zombies singing their acoustic juvenilia in praise of coitus, or where you can hear a nice Jewish boy howling the blues on a one-string "unitar."

In the world of Shakespearean England, theater was no mere diversion for the privileged few but a lusty, popular spectacle attended by rich and poor alike. Throwing themselves into the action, the audience cheered their heroes and reviled the villains, behaving like fans at a sports event. While better mannered than their Elizabethan forebears, the crowds on Shakespeare nights at the Book Grinders bookstore and coffee bar in Sherman Oaks are no less enthusiastic.

Coffee machines hiss and splutter, spouting foamy cappuccinos and lattes in a hubbub of 40 customers crammed into a small, air-conditioned cafe. This is tea-drinking India, but the hot new gathering place is the coffee bar. With a guitar leaning against the wall and a music system belting out Grammy-winning hits, this outpost of Barista, India's foremost coffee bar chain, is drawing throngs of high school and college students, bored homemakers and pinstriped businessmen.

At the Rev. Al Holm's drive-through espresso place, you can get a latte, a mocha or a husband. Cheri Henderson chose the latter, marrying Bryan Myers in a five-minute ceremony. "Well, wham bam," Henderson said at the conclusion of the wedding, witnessed by the barista and customers of Holm's Sacred Grounds caffeine-and-commitment emporium. Sacred Grounds occupies a former pizza counter in the back of the A-n-D Mini Mart on a busy street a block from Interstate 90.

New Store in Town: Mrs. Gooch is coming to Tustin. To be accurate, Mrs. Gooch's Whole Foods Market is coming to town. The 20-year-old Los Angeles-based company sells healthy food through seven stores. The store will incorporate a soup and salad bar, a juice bar, a coffee bar and a pizza counter and potato bar.

Contrary to the criticism leveled at the ArcLight Sherman Oaks by one of your readers ["ArcLight: Big Whoop," Letters, Dec. 27], I found the movie experience on Christmas Day to be quite comfortable and patron-friendly. While the space is not as soaring as its big brother, what other movie house offers reserved seats, a coffee bar, a "sit down" short-order cafe and 16 screens for less than $13? Jerome V. Posell Calabasas

SOUTHERN California is used to the spotlight, but when it comes to independent coffeehouses, we're still in the rain shadow of the Pacific Northwest. Maybe this is because Angelenos don't have to endure the lurking damp and early darkness that send so many Seattleites running to the comfort of their neighborhood coffee bars.

At the Rev. Al Holm's drive-through espresso place, you can get a latte, a mocha or a husband. Cheri Henderson chose the latter, marrying Bryan Myers in a five-minute ceremony. "Well, wham bam," Henderson said at the conclusion of the wedding, witnessed by the barista and customers of Holm's Sacred Grounds caffeine-and-commitment emporium. Sacred Grounds occupies a former pizza counter in the back of the A-n-D Mini Mart on a busy street a block from Interstate 90.

It's just 'round midnight at the Howling Monk, and the old refurbished Inglewood storefront has taken on the fervor of a revival meeting. Drummer Winard Harper's jazz sextet has a crowd of about 60 people--mostly African American, mostly over 30--clapping time to a version of Bobby Timmons' "Moanin'," shouting out from their rows of chairs, steaming up the plate glass windows, dancing in the doorways thrown open to Market Street.

Coffee machines hiss and splutter, spouting foamy cappuccinos and lattes in a hubbub of 40 customers crammed into a small, air-conditioned cafe. This is tea-drinking India, but the hot new gathering place is the coffee bar. With a guitar leaning against the wall and a music system belting out Grammy-winning hits, this outpost of Barista, India's foremost coffee bar chain, is drawing throngs of high school and college students, bored homemakers and pinstriped businessmen.

The teller at the bank branch is accepting deposits, the baristas at the coffee cart are whipping up mochas and the day-care workers are playing with giggling babies. Then the principal's voice comes over the intercom, reminding students of the time for baseball practice and announcing that seniors are leading the contest to show which class has the most school spirit. Students operate nine businesses at St. Helen's High School in this small town 20 miles north of Portland.

A short article (Oct. 13) describes the "justified" shooting of a homeless man seated at an upscale coffee bar. The patrons having fled, sheriff's deputies placed themselves within danger and, having failed to immediately subdue the man with pepper spray, riddled him with bullets. Let's change the story. A marauding bear is cornered in a local coffee bar. The patrons having fled, a huge force of police cordons off the neighborhood. A specialized team is sent in under the glare of news cameras.

Real Office Centers, which provides executive suite-style offices for the young and tech-savvy, will set up shop in a Santa Monica office building last occupied by Google. Landlord Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. said Real Office Centers leased all of the 44,260-square-foot building at 604 Arizona Ave. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Hudson sought $3.27 per square foot per month for space in the building, real estate data provider CoStar said. “This property generated significant interest from prospective tenants due to the limited supply of creative office space throughout West Los Angeles,” said Victor Coleman, chief executive of Hudson.

Tricia Galarza-Ramos, 35, who's heard her share of drunk-driving horror stories from her police-officer husband, built a business around the idea that you can have just as much fun at a party sipping a Cuban latte as a Mojito cocktail. She runs America's Cup, a mobile espresso bar that can be rented, at $100 an hour, for private parties. Galarza-Ramos will even name the coffee drinks at her bar especially for the event.

Starbucks Corp. said it has signed a licensing agreement with Albertson's Inc., the nation's No. 2 U.S. supermarket chain, to open more than 100 coffee bars in Albertsons stores. Terms weren't disclosed. Seattle-based Starbucks opened its first coffee bar in an Albertsons store in Boise, Idaho, last week, a spokeswoman said. It will begin selling coffee, teas, pastries, ice cream and other Starbucks merchandise in the others by next year.