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:
“More than 1700 LED pixels are connected and spaced 50mm apart behind behind glass. The light installation allows custom colors and fading in and out. New colorings and patterns will rotate on a seasonal basis. The initial blue coloring currently seen is inspired by Venice’s skyline at 5pm. Lighting fades down at 7pm and fades up starting at 6:05am as employees begin preparing for the day. It takes approximately 30 minutes to completely fade and light up to the full daytime level.”
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.
The café is located at 1103 Abbot Kinney Blvd., and is officially open for business today, September 23rd, 7am-6pm. You can follow @BlueBottle_LA for more info.