So, if you've never been to L.A., here's a clue to how big it is: L.A. Eater just posted a well-informed guide to 44 seriously good coffee bars in town, and not one of them is within 10 miles of my home. Fortunately two are close to my office. http://la.eater.com/maps/los-angeles-gr ... map-photos

In that connection Sprudge just posted photos of the gorgeous new (and fabulously equipped) Verve outlet opening in the very over-served Downtown: http://sprudge.com/verve-los-angeles-cafe.html.

As L.A. Magazine notes this month, since the demise of Handsome, local roasters are barely visible against a massive backdrop of out of town invaders. Some blame the fierce air pollution controls (if you lived here in the 70's, you bless those controls every day) and others the desire of retailers to make an immediate marketing impact with "name" roasters. Oh, well, benevolent invaders are better than not having them at all.

Marshall wrote:Some blame the fierce air pollution controls (if you lived here in the 70's, you bless those controls every day)...

Anyone complaining about clean air laws didn't live in LA in the 50's. I remember heading to Disneyland with my grandparents and them telling me to close my eyes until we got through one particularly bad area (around the old Firestone plant iirc) so they wouldn't burn and water so badly.

I joke with folks, "I'm from LA. I don't trust air I can't see."

Marshall, as one of those local roasters struggling to make an impact, I'm glad other people are noticing. Business is getting slightly easier for me to acquire (inside and outside of the city) these days as my company's name grows, but LA native roasters still have a long way to go.

LA has a lot of well-known shops, but it doesn't help that those shops' owners (almost always from out of town themselves) refuse to support local roasters and often unfairly badmouth our quality to further their own gains. If you think I'm being dramatic, I'm not - I've been dealing with it for years. Hopefully as a group we can overcome being priced-out by larger companies and starved by local shops.

Wow, big city. Haven't been there in many years. Go get em, Kian. I can attest to C&R's good coffee

We're still here as well. Our shops are putting an ever increasing load on our roaster and our roastmaster, but even as wholesale business is picking up, it's been a challenge to build exclusive cafe relationships or get the attention of local multi-roasters. We've been hunting for the right space to open a fancy roast/retail shop for a while now...it's been a long journey fill with a lot of heart break.

It would be great to see some sort of coordinated local LA roaster activity (other than what the folks a LACC are doing). Maybe we can leverage our own shops to make something like that happen.

As a consumer, I would support something where i could buy beans that are Local.
It would be nice, if there was either a monthly or quarterly showcase, maybe a coffee farmers market, where we could go to try them.

But we should probably define local. Local as in roasting in greater LA? Or LA Native Roasting only? Would Cafecito Organico or Jones be too big? Maybe LA Native Roasting with X or less number of shops?

Demitasse wrote:It would be great to see some sort of coordinated local LA roaster activity (other than what the folks a LACC are doing). Maybe we can leverage our own shops to make something like that happen.

That could certainly happen. Maybe Chris Schooley could help you organize something local through the Roasters Guild.