Lot 44 Coffee & Blue Cupcakes

UPDATE: Blue Cupcakes are apparently no longer available at Lot 44 Coffee. You can still get your sugar fix from Julie on Thursdays from 11AM-2PM at the Century City Farmer’s Market.

Although many of us make a concerted effort to eat healthy, ethically-sourced food and to be aware of its origins, we often neglect to think about what we drink.

Lot 44 Coffee in downtown LA, however, cares about what you drink. The hip but relaxed shop serves organic, fair trade, pesticide-free, estate and small-lot coffee.

Lot 44 Coffee boasts an impressive menu, with drinks ranging from a fair trade organic Xocolatl (Mexican hot chocolate w/ chiles and cinnamon) to an organic Ethiopian Sidamo. They also offer fresh, all-natural pastries and organic sandwiches.

Also impressive is Lot 44’s top-notch service. On this day, I wasn’t in the mood for coffee, hoping, instead, for a green tea latte, which was not on the menu. The barista, however, offered to make me one anyway! Happy, happy.

As someone constantly on the look-out for new places to plop down with my laptop and a cup of coffee, I was excited by Lot 44’s ample seating in the shop itself and atrium in the back.

Lot 44 Coffee is (was) also one of the only places in town where you can get your hands on a Blue Cupcake. I first heard of Blue Cupcake while checking out the winners of the 2010 Cupcake Challenge and instantly fell in love with Julie’s jaw-droppingly beautiful and detailed specialty cupcakes. I’m already plotting when I can justifiably place a custom order (graduation? birthday?).

I ordered a strawberry cupcake, which was piled high with pastel pink frosting. With one bite, my head tipped back and an involuntary “Nommm” escaped my lips. Both the cake and the frosting tasted like real strawberries–not strawberry flavoring. I have eaten many a strawberry cupcake in my day, but this Blue Cupcake blows them all out of the water.

Although the motivation for my visit to Lot 44 Coffee was to sample a Blue Cupcake (which was well-worth the trip), I couldn’t help but love the shop and its values and goals.

Be sure to pop by Lot 44 Coffee for your Organic Mayan Mocha between Monday and Friday as they’re closed on weekends.

Lot 44 Coffee

www.lot44coffee.com

257 S. Spring St.

Los Angeles, CA 90012

(213) 626-4646

Blue Cupcake

www.bluecupcake.com

www.twitter.com/blue_cupcake

LAMill Coffee Boutique

One of the (very few) upsides to being sick is that you will, eventually, have to leave the house and can visit places that you’ve been meaning to but just haven’t had the time to visit (unless, you know, cabin fever is your thing). This is how I finally got to LAMill on a bright, sunny weekday afternoon.

LAMill is beautiful, relaxing little shop in Silverlake that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and boasts an impressive coffee, espresso and tea list. They also recently obtained a liquor license and are adding not only beer, wine and sake to their menu but also specialty combination drinks such as Tea Champagne (Alcohol AND caffeine? Woohoo!).

I absolutely adore classic, vintage chic decor and, with LAMill’s murals, chandeliers and oversized chairs, it was love at first sight.

I ordered a cappuccino and was instantly delighted to see that there was a heart on it. Flavor-wise, however, it wasn’t one of my favorite cappuccino’s I’ve had. It was still fairly bitter after I added some brown sugar cubes to it and was also only lukewarm. The best cappuccino I’ve found in LA still at The Conservatory in Culver City.

J ordered the Cough**Wheeze**Sniffle Herbal Tea…which is what I should have also ordered. This had an incredible, sweet flavor that was also really soothing on the throat. This is a must if you’re feeling under the weather.

He also ordered the brioche donut holes, which were beautiful to look at and a delight to eat. They were crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside (sort of like a mini-malasada covered in confectioner’s sugar). Be sure to order the side of cream with these!

I ordered the Prosciutto Cotto French Baguette with cooked prosciutto and Tal eggi o dop Uero Ciresa cheese, which came with hand-cut potato chips, olives and a preserved cippolini onion.

The cooked prosciutto tasted more like sliced ham ham rather than the thin, dry-cured meat I was hoping for. It’s always a little sad when you don’t get what you think you’re going to get but the sandwich was, never the less, good, and I really enjoyed the thick-sliced, crusty bread as well as the coarse-grain mustard and the sweet cippolini.

The potato chips were also tasty–very thick and crunchy like chips should be!

The service at LAMill is average at best (indifferent at worst) but, given the atmosphere and extensive number of caffeinated offerings, isn’t a dealbreaker for me.

I think one variation of a perfect day for me would involve spending all day at LAMill with my laptop, camera and a book, eating and sipping my way throughout the day. On second thought, maybe I should be sick more often.

LAMill Coffee Boutique

www.lamillcoffee.com

1636 Silverlake Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90026

(323) 663-4441