Awaken Cafe — Restaurant in Los Angeles

(From a local, who lives 4 blocks away) My first visit to coffee connection was during Summer of 2014. Prices haven’t changed much nor has their service and quality on coffee, pastries, environment, and staff. Ask the barista what you want and they will execute it with their best ability.

Coffee connection has been my go to during my college years, early morning or afternoon is best to obtain a table, especially in this current time which is awesome to see Coffee connection prospering with a packed house. They offer free parking at their lot, located next door. Coffee connection offers free wifi, drinking water, and a nice patio and indoor seating with several outlets. During the late afternoon their outdoor patio glistens with the lights hanging overhead, a nice place to relax, study, work, or chat with someone. The patio is provided with shade by a giant tree, making it cool and fresh during summer time. Overall, coffee connection gets a 5/5 for price, environment, and quality of drinks/pastries. If you are new, please give it a try, I’ve recommended this spot to many people, and they have all loved the spot. Furthermore they offer student discounts (show student ID) and Teacher discounts. Also, do not forget to grab one of their stamp cards, each drink receives a stamp :), once filled you’ll be able to get any sized drink for FREE. If you are reading up to this point, let me start off by saying, the marble loaf and blueberry pound cake are chefs kiss, highly recommend. Compliment the bread with a hot coffee, or any drink for that...

This is kind of a sad story. This was my favorite place to go to for over a year. It WAS my third place. I was there literally daily. I enjoyed the atmosphere, their drinks, and though I mostly worked privately, I also made several really good friends from chance conversations, all of whom I would randomly see there over and over again. Being able to work in such a nice environment, while also having the possibility of connection was great. Also CRUCIAL was their hours. Coffee shops just close too early! After 4pm the only reliable, cheap third places in this town are public libraries and there is no connecting going on there.

Unfortunately, things started changing for the worst. They started to close way earlier - earlier than I would ever normally even arrive, and they removed a ton of seating, making it either very hard or uncomfortable to find a way to chill there. The crowded bustle that made connection easy, and the hours that made it a reliable third-space were both dashed.

I can imagine several reason why they might have done this - for all I know it was unsustainable financially or counter to the church’s mission or something. But at least for me, the changes were a tragic foot-gun move. It went from being my ride or die spot to being almost entirely useless. I have only been there a handful of times since.

I will probably change this 2-star review to a five in the future because I want Coffee Connection to succeed, but for now I’m putting a 2 to reflect my tragic feelings about the changes and to hopefully get them to...

One of my favorite coffee shops in LA

Super inconspicuous vibes from outside! But soooo roomy inside. Has indoor seating, outdoor seating, and an area of in between. Affordable, delicious coffee (still 4$ for a small latte- I'm down!!! 4.75$ for medium - but other places easy charge $6+)

What we got: ancient Mayan, cinnamon latte I tried my friends cinnamon latte and it was too sweet for me; like dessert in a cup! So I decided to ask for the ancient Mayan half sweet w/ decaf. Half sweet was the perfect amount of sweet. It was spectacular & the chocolate flavor wasn't too strong.

Some places charge extra for decaf (!), so I'm happy this place didn't

Lots, lots of people seem to come here to work/ read/blog life. More so than chat. Very calm, peaceful vibes! Service was also super, super sweet.

My friend told me some of the proceeds go to a church, or something like that?

Cool place to check out! I parked on the street in front since it was a holiday, but I was told there's a lot across the street you...