2 posts tagged “coffee”

Smile

Heyri Coffee House

755 S. Hobart Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90005

www.cafeheyri.com

There was an article in the LA Times recently about Koreatown's coffee places: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-koreancoffee14feb14,0,1920467.story

It was that article that prompted my visit to Cafe Jack the other day. The other place the article mentioned was Heyri, which was listed as having a "zen-like back garden." Well, the front is anything but zen. You pull in and the two valet guys come scurrying around. Heyri is really modern looking and sleek. The back isn't so "zen-like" -- it backs up next to the Assi Market's spill-over parking lot. But the twinkling lights hanging from the palm tree make it a truly LA kind of location. The waitress thoughtfully brought blankets to keep out the frigid LA air...brrr....polar. Korean pop music wafted through the whole place: "something something something oh baby something something."

I ordered my americano (the waiter knew what it was this time!) and a waffle. My waffle came out with two eyes made of vanilla ice cream and a cut up banana for a mouth. Our friend ordered dukbokki -- what I call spicy Korean rice logs. They're not my favorite -- but here they come in a dish that looks faintly like a '60s ashtray.

My americano was better than the one from Cafe Jack, but somehow the sleek modern look of Heyri lacks the homemade charm of the Cafe Jack wooden Titanic.  My next stop -- Cafe Avec!

Logs

Koreatowncafe

Cafe Jack

508 S Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90020

When I was a kid I remember going to dinner at the restaurant at the Queen Mary. I don't remember much about that experience, except that we had creamed spinach. But lo and behold -- there's another ship to dine at! And this one is in Koreatown!

OK, so it's not so impressive as the Queen Mary, but it does have a certain "homemade" charm.

Cafe Jack has a Titanic theme (Cafe JACK -- get it?). You walk in through a parking lot that's guarded by a rather comatose looking Akita and into a dark boat that actually creaks as you walk through. I highly recommend sitting inside, so you get the full nautical effect.  Plus you can people watch. Then again there weren't many people there when I was there. I only wished it had pirate music or the Popeye the Sailor Man theme or something. Alas, they were playing Korean pop music.

The staff is enthusiastic and perky. I felt bad because the little Korean door bells that people use to call the waitress kept going off so they couldn't eat their lunch. I asked for an americano, which kind of baffled the waitress. I heard her asking her coworker in Korean "something something something americano something something something" (I am assuming that was her asking what the hell I was ordering). It's a bit pricy -- three coffees for $17. And we didn't even get any snacks!

Would I go back? Probably. There's a sollangtang restaurant around the corner that I'd like to try, and an overpriced coffee and chewy rice logs would be the way to cap an evening!

Cafejack