Say "Hello" to Groundwork Coffee, the best coffee company in the L.A. and Santa Monica.
Whenever people talk about the best coffee in L.A., the first name comes up is Intelligentsia. Maybe, this has happened because of publicity and their performance. They dispatch baristas to The United States Barista Championship, Big Western, almost every year and open "Coffee bar" in major cities in the States. Or, it's because maybe their outstanding presentation at their cafes.
If the first thing you care about is quality, here is the one worth to visit, even make a trip to visit: Groundwork coffee. Groundwork coffee is one of the first coffee roaster to become certified Organic in Southern California, and pioneered sustainable and relationship-based, organic coffee sourcing.
There are 7 locations, including Roastery in North Hollywood and KIOSK on every Sunday at Farmers Market in Santa Monica's Heritage Square. Their coffeehouses are very unique, most of them have something memorable or histrionic needed to be carried on to next generation. Out of all, here is the one, the most unique coffee house on Main St., Santa Monica.
Only 8 feet wide and 35 feet long, this handy size coffeehouse presents philosophy of Groundwork: "Organic and sustainability" can provide "high quality and exquisite flavor". Coffee beans and teas they carry/offer are only organically grown.
They sell not only blends but also single origins: Brazil, Sumatra, Honduras, Peru, Papua New Guinea and so on.
Some may want to categorize these as "Specialty" since beans are identified by mills and estates/farms, but their effort is more than "Specialty".
Organic and Specialty can be together if you sincerely deserve to combine these two together. Groundwork proves it.
"Specialty coffee movement" certainly brought us the mind of appreciation to the growers and raised value of their work. So called "third wave" pushed up the price of green beans dramatically and micronized regions of production.
Groundwork Coffee Company shows us the future of "Specialty Coffee": harmonization. We are now to live for the future. The future we preserve environments and live with what we have.
Pike Place and Capitol Hill are well known coffee culture sanctuary but Seattle seems to have "hideaways" in a neighborhood.
Ballard, a neighborhood located in the northwestern part of Seattle, is one of the outstanding/focused area, where a many high-end apartments are now under construction. Along Market St., on the corner of Market St. and 22nd Ave., there are three cafes, including Starbucks, gather and welcome us with nice coffee aroma.
Ballard Coffee works seems to the busiest cafe I have ever visited in Seattle. At 7 AM, there are already a line for a cup and only few seat open. Revisited at 9 PM, the cafe is still packed with people even on a weekday.
Ballard Coffee Works belongs to Seattle Coffee Works located on Pike St., between 2nd and 1st Ave., near Pike Place Market. Reading their history, there is a similar story to the one Storyville Coffee company has. The capital of Coffee could not satisfy "coffee nuts" with the biggest expectation toward "coffee sanctuary", then "coffee nuts" begin roastery to meet their own expectation together with providing "real" coffee to people to create a genuine sanctuary.
Spending years, heir business grows gradually. In 2012, Seattle Coffee Works opened a second cafe in Ballard, called Ballard Coffee Works.
Ballard Coffee Works is filled with warm atmosphere, warm enough to sit for hours and hours to make the space as our personal office. The space is supplied with high speed WIFI, number of outlets, lots enough to call personal outlets assigned each seats!, and hide-away seat locations. Actually, there are many occupies seats "working" there.
Besides espresso drink and machine made drip coffee, there were specialty coffee choices with Aeropress, CEMEX, V60 and maybe others. Espresso drinks were priced reasonably, maybe a bit lower than average price range, thus quality was good enough. The choice of visiting day was Cafe latte with soy milk.
Flavor of soy latte tastes satisfying for morning cups minus the form of soy milk is a little bit fuzzy. Some may say espresso is weak for latte, depending on your taste.
