Smoky Hollow Roasters

Cozy cafe for creative professionals. One server looked bored, the other quietly eager to please. Cozy couches, a long table for seating with computer. Partner and I snagged a couple of soft leather chairs by the door. Plopped our laptops on small wooden coffee tables / our laps. Love the vibe immediately, would be a go-to spot if I lived in the area. Matcha was, hmm. I couldn’t taste it. They add cinnamon and honey. I asked for no honey and OK’d the cinnamon. Instant regret. It overpowered. Cinnamon tea + slight matcha flavor lol. Maybe it’s better with dairy? (I do oat milk.) We worked for four hours, no problemo. Soft ambient noise. Everyone who came in looked like a creative person. Hoodies but also leather satchels, you know the vibe. Film studio next door, energy startup across the street. Young people (20s, 30s) chatting with baristas. Cozy place to work. Parking - Fine. I parked along the street. Noonish on a weekday. Walked 3 minutes, no problemo. Partner snagged a spot in the small parking lot. Walk up the street for mild views of city. Not much, but it’s cute.

Used to be a very nice place to grab a pastry and hang for a few. Now that there is nowhere to have a bike, and no bike racks, it’s not cyclist friendly. May come back if that resolves. They roast their own coffee, which is fantastic. The coffee drinks are on the weak side, but the pastries are to die for.

I visited Smoky Hollow about a week ago while in LA for work. I grabbed a large coffee and a pastry and planned to get some work done, but the experience was disappointing. The staff was friendly, but when I asked for the WiFi password, I was directed to a small chalkboard with a password that simply didn’t work. After trying multiple times and mentioning it, I was told the WiFi was “just slow,” even though the real issue was that the password itself was incorrect. It became clear they knowingly give out a wrong password to discourage people from staying too long, which feels deceptive, especially after having a nice conversation at checkout about needing to work while in town. As a paying customer, a functioning WiFi connection shouldn’t be too much to expect. I won’t be returning and will be letting friends and colleagues know about this practice.

Visiting Smoky Hollow has been self-debate on my head given the polarized reviews I read about the place. Hard to find parking, unpleasant service, so-so taste, name it. But in contrary, some people highly recommended it and spoke great stuffs about it. Proving it myself, the dedicated parking spots were indeed limited, but plenty of street parking available and only required very short walk. The space was pretty huge and uniquely designed in vintage vibes with a clear emphasis on it being a coffee roaster. Plenty of desks were provided, making it very accommodative as a working space. The place was quite busy throughout the day, but I witnessed myself that the baristas were pretty swift in getting all the orders ready, shooing away all the negative critics. They offered light bites for the drink companion, for which my pick was Matcha Pistachio croissant. Despite being quite disappointed that it didn't have any filling while I was expecting pistachio paste, it surprisingly tasted pretty decent with flaky and buttery pastry base. The matcha icing on top added extra pleasure to enjoy surely. I went for their fall special, Maple Latte, which came with Pure Maple syrup. If you're in the boat who preferred your cup of joe to come in gigantic size, you would love that they had 20oz size available. It was surely great coffee with strong aroma and flavor, but I would prefer the maple syrup to be toned down a bit as it's tad too sweet. I could see myself coming back given the convenience and good quality coffee; probably next trying something more basic instead of syrupy ones.

Discovered this place on an unexpected travel delay and have made it a point to stop by again every time visiting LA. Great tasting coffee roasted on location, fantastic atmosphere and above and beyond service. Take a seat, play a game of chess and relax in the laid back atmosphere You can tell that the team here cares about crafting great coffee and are dedicated to the business.