Dayglow — Restaurant in Los Angeles

When I first heard Dayglow was opening a spot in Venice Beach, I was genuinely stoked. I mean, who’d have thought Venice Beach would suddenly become such an exciting café hub? Definitely a pleasant surprise. But unfortunately, the reality hasn’t quite matched my expectations, though I’m still hopeful they’ll turn it around.

Here’s the thing: they rotate their coffee beans frequently (possibly weekly?), which results in a super inconsistent experience. My first coffee there was great, but my second visit.. well, let’s just say my $14 Warhol 2.0 ended up in a trash bin down the street near Café Gratitude. Ouch. Couldn’t finish it at all.

No biggie, I figured maybe I picked the wrong beans, which is exactly what they told me on my third visit. So, I took their advice and carefully chose my coffee. Yet somehow, the crew still got it totally mixed up—not just the wrong beans, but also the wrong milk. When I pointed it out, they kindly remade my drink, but still got the milk wrong. It seems like the staff is just a bit too spaced out and maybe slightly too “chill.” Don’t get me wrong, I love cool vibes as much as anyone, but when I’m paying nearly $14 (or even around $10 on average), I’d prefer a consistently good coffee over a hit-or-miss experience.

Still, the spot definitely has potential. When they’re on their game, they make great coffee. It just shouldn’t feel like playing roulette every visit. Especially since Venice Beach has plenty of other awesome cafés that nail it consistently.

Speaking of which, here’s my Venice Beach café ranking from favorite to least favorite (though honestly, they’re all pretty amazing): Saint Maxime Coffee Truck (right by Dayglow!) Flow Coffee Bar (Hampton Drive) Hooked Venice Gnarwhal Coffee Co. (Main Street) Blue Bottle Coffee (Abbot) Intelligentsia (Abbot) Groundwork Coffee (Rose Ave) Little Lunch Coffee Currently, Dayglow Tartine

Oh, and special shoutout to Venice Flake! Not exactly a pure coffee shop, but their burritos and sandwiches are...

Coming here as my matcha-fan friend has been bragging about Dayglow’s drinks being awesome. Despite I really loved Larchmont and have been knowing they have an outlet there, it's quite a drive away so highly excited knowing they now expanded their footprint into Venice! Rose was one of my favorite spots in town, where all the nice cafes and restos sitting at the same array and the neighborhood was just pleasing to walk around.

Occupying a corner space made Dayglow a great place to just sit and spend time people-watching. The venue's setup even seemed to enable it with semi-open space and plenty of window seating. Their drink menus were 'adventurous' to go through, not only that the mind behind it was creative in naming, but also it featured fun mixes of ingredients, giving the feeling that each drink was just standout and uncommon. All baristas were super friendly and fun, convincing me straight away that my initial visit would certainly be not the only one, even before I sipped my drink.

With richer menu sometimes got tricky and caused more dilemma than helping you being decisive, the knowledgeable baristas certainly turned helpful there as they would ask for your preference and gave you recommended options. Being torn between trying their coffee or their matcha since both seemed highly-recommended, I scored two wins by going for their Military Latte, which was basically their version of Dirty Matcha or Matcha with Espresso shot. First sip and LOVESTRUCK! Strong coffee and quality matcha made the power couple there, sweetened by their bourbon vanilla syrup.

They should forgive me for just giving a chance and paying a visit, after so long being kinda skeptical that it's just 'selling aesthetic gorgeous' space. Price wise it might sit at the higher end, but I would say...

While looking for St Maxine, accidentally landed at the opening day today of Dayglow in Venice.

It was busy and chaotic, with equipment malfunctioning that stopped all hot coffee, pour over coffee running out, things not working.

None of that mattered as the staff kept their cool, and kept chugging along.

Johnny made me a delicious anaerobic pour over, dayglows own F10. It took 20 minutes but was worth it.

The kid wanted hot chocolate but they weren’t setup for that yet. So she ended up getting a flaky fresh chocolate croissant with enough chocolate to make a 3 year old happy.

Lots of dogs. The location has a lot to natural sunlight and plenty of spots to enjoy a cup of coffee. It’s surprisingly kid friendly, despite not having kid drinks yet.

The decor is minimal. The coffee is highly curated and represents the best of the best: from Fritz in South Korea to Swerl from Sweden.

Considering there are so few super high quality artisanal coffee places in the west side, dayglow venice saves you the trouble of going to north east LA for world class coffee. This is in the same league as the always excellent Kumquat, ondo, endorfeinne.

We will be back to try other pour overs.

Tip: Plenty of street parking on Rose. Tip: Once Awan opens up next door, try some excellent ice cream and...