Blue Bottle officially opens their first Los Angeles expansion today, on the bright and bustling Abbot Kinney boulevard in Venice Beach, where it will vie for coffee-drinking mouth share alongside folks like Intelligentsia and Tom’s Shoes.
The new location is 660-square-foot walk-up space, similar to the company’s iconic Hayes Valley alley location in San Francisco. The facade in Venice is all glass and metal, with automatic doors opening on to the standing bar giving what Sprudge LA Desk Julie Wolfson described as a sort of “Star Trek” effect. Engage!
The sunshine streaming in from the glass facade is accented by a custom light installation along the back of the space from Tekamaki, a video display company from the Bay Area, known for innovative lighting technology and presentations such as holiday lighting displays for the San Francisco Zoo.
According to the press release:
The space also features amply sized leaf maple counters “salvaged from one tree in central Washington” and custom shelving and counters done by Berkeley’s Dialogue Design Build.
Baristas will serve the Dandy espresso blend off of a Kees Van Der Westen Spirit–a custom hotrod of a machine that is still fairly rare in the States, but has something of a cult following in Australia and other markets. Baked goods at Abbot Kinney are currently being procured from Farmshop and include Blue Bottle’s signature cookies.
