alelash orriss manuell
Sharon Harris
The Los Angeles-based coffee shop chain unveiled its newest Westwood location Monday. Located across from the Hammer Museum, Alfred Coffee brings well-crafted beverages and vibrant interior decor to Westwood Village. Though the area is already saturated with a variety of coffee shops, Alfred provides Bruins with distinctive menu options that are otherwise unavailable.
Though packed with older adults in the earlier hours, a more youthful atmosphere develops the second UCLA students file in. Customers can choose from a variety of seating options such as single-stooled bar seats, two-person study tables or a large communal table at the center.
For customers who do not prefer coffee, Alfred also offers a caffeine-packed matcha latte. The barista recommends substituting in oat milk, an alteration that balances the bitterness normally found in powdered matcha. The latte tastes earthy but subtly sweet, which highlights the grassy-flavored undertones of premium quality matcha.
While Alfred offers top-quality coffee and tea, the location, lack of power outlets and prices are potential cons for UCLA students. Situated more than a mile from Hedrick Hall, Alfred Westwood Village is not as easily accessible for on-campus Bruins as Upside Down or the Starbucks on Weyburn Avenue. And in terms of pricing, a standard latte ranges from $5 to $6, but additives such as milk alternatives and syrup can skyrocket the cost up into the $7 range.
There are others like them, all patiently waiting for their chance to snap a quick selfie in front of the just-opened tea stop, a feminine-modern space with a menu of inventive teas from around the world. Frequently Instagrammed favorites include the iced matcha green tea and the chai tea latte (with boba added, of course). This is no ordinary street, and this is no ordinary caffeine station: The location is Melrose Place, and this Alfred Tea Room.
Sormeh Azad, an interior designer who dreamed up celeb-happy nightclub The Nice Guy, was a frequent customer during Alfred's early days. "I was designing and building [the club] down the street on La Cienega and was often on the construction site early morning and really needed a coffee," she remembers.
"At that time, I was there for the coffee but staying for the environment, [which sometimes] makes all the difference for me," she admits. "Call it a placebo effect, but somehow when a space is well-designed, the coffee tastes better."
The man behind Alfred is not named Alfred. He's Joshua Zad, a 34-year-old commercial real estate developer. And if anyone's surprised that he's the founder of one of LA's best (and certainly aesthetically-pleasing) coffee stops, it's him.
"It's still just the weirdest thing to me because I never thought in a million years I'd be involved in food and beverage," he reveals. "One thousand percent no. I think for most people it crosses their mind; it's a really sexy idea to have a restaurant or a bar. But I never had [those] aspirations."
"Obviously, I have a stake in [the area]," he admits. Combining his real estate intel and entrepreneurial spirit, in 2012 he signed the lease for 8428 Melrose Place, a cozy space beneath high-end aesthetician Kate Somerville's skincare studio and that previously housed edgy-luxe label Faith Connexion.
"It was kind of a gamble and there was no one there yet," he says. "Melrose Place has always traditionally been a sleepy tree-lined street, and in the past it's been mainly antique shops and rug dealers," he says. "I was comfortable with the fact that the street itself is so beautiful and speaks for itself."
Spanning less than a quarter of a mile between La Cienega Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, the low-key stretch's high-end boom began when Marc Jacobs and Marni arrived about 12 years ago. The year the inked dried on Alfred's lease, Carolina Herrera, Oscar de la Renta, L'Agence, and Equipment opened their doors.
Hit up friendly the local coffee shop on a weekday at high noon and it's clear that Alfred's arrival is a win-win for nearby inhabitants, Melrose Place shoppers, and the high-end street's tenants. Over the past three years, the stylish stretch has welcomed a slew of cool new kids to the block, including The Row, Nine Zero One Salon, Rachel Comey, and Vanessa Seward.
"[Alfred's] locations tend to be perfectly placed where fashionable people hang out," explains Matt Kang, editor-in-chief of our sister site Eater LA. "It's become preferred in the fashionable set because of its stylish decor and unfussy service."
When it opened in 2013, the caf was perfect pit stop for label lovers seeking java jolts during their Melrose Place retail therapy: fashion blogosphere pioneers like Chiara Ferragni (who even raved to us about Alfred), Aimee Song, and Emily Schuman sprinkled their blog posts and social media snaps with Alfred's signature #butfirstcoffee sleeves. And when the world's most famous fashion blogger declares your cup of joe the "cutest coffee ever", her fans will likely want to drink it up, too.
An ongoing series of collaborations with cult-cool LA labels, have furthered Alfred's fashion credits. When Alfred, In The Alley opened two years ago, its coffee sleeves featured the work of California design star Kelly Wearstler. For the debut of its Silver Lake location, the cafe tapped Clare V. to design its charming coffee sleeves. It's even teamed with cool tech accessories brand This Is Ground, which created a leather cup holder last fall.
As New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell famously noted in his book, Outliers, location and timing, combined with drive and (for the most part) talent, equal the secret to success. In the case of Alfred Coffee, Zad capitalized on being at the right place (Los Angeles) at the right time (a decaf street during the digital age). While social media stardom certainly thrust Alfred before the thumb-scrolling Millennial masses, its founder was clearly onto something.
Pre-2010, any pretty eatery was simply photogenic. These days, when hashtags provide an aesthetically-pleasing catalog of every noun and verb imaginable, anything that's decidedly well-designed is "IG-worthy." This idea was not lost during the M&D phase of Alfred, says Zad, and it certainly hasn't been for the rest of the restaurant industry.
As interior and event designer Ken Fulk told Tasting Table earlier this year, a lens-pleasing eatery is no accident. "It's like the chicken and egg: Does Instagram inspire design, or is it design that inspires Instagram?" he revealed. "It's a bit of both."
Step into any of the caf chain's five LA outposts and try to resist pulling out your smartphone. Alfred in the Alley is punctuated by bold, monochromatic tiles that pull you towards the sleek stainless steel counter; Brentwood, as Zad describes it, is "very Williams-Sonoma, but edgy."
Being shutterbug-friendly alongside offering a healthy foodie-approved menu (which includes Farm Shop pastries, Cafe Gratitude grub, and the unabashedly LA #10dollarlatte), good customer service, and even its employee uniforms (provided by local apron company Hedley & Bennett) were "[equally] important parts of our overall strategy," he says. Beyond designing attractive interiors, the ambition behind Alfred 1.0 was to offer a quality commodity in a stylish, approachable setting.
"It's [about] the quality of coffee that you deliver and the kind of customer service and the design experience that you get when you walk in the door," Zad tells us. "We're not world-champion baristas and we don't roast our own beans," he continues. With a reputable brand like Stumptown on tap, Alfred is afforded a certain street cred among seasoned and amateur coffee connoisseurs.
"We don't have to talk about the origin, [which] most people can't really connect with anyways," explains Zad. When served within Alfred's fashion-forward interiors, each and every iced coffee, cappuccino, and macchiato becomes a piece of that picture-perfect lifestyle.
As Sormeh Azad (now a PNW transplant) puts it, Alfred's bold interior design "can be overwhelming at times in terms of combination of colors, materials and patterns." Case in point: the chain's Brentwood location, where black and white diagonal stripes crash against bright green tiling. "This combination has become a staple brand and as a designer I commend that aspect; it inspires a part of my brain whenever I come in contact with it."
I was amazed by her confidence. She was just as comfortable in front of the camera in a public space as I imagine her being at home with her family - a model in her element - making my job as chief photographer incredibly easy. Before we got started, though, we sat to a lunch of sorts. I filled up on liquid diet of pressed juice and a beautiful Stumptown cappuccino, while she enjoyed a sandwich. We talked over coffee where she shared with me about her life as a writer, her style and what it's like to be the daughter of fashion royalty.
Sounds simple enough, but when you are faced with a force like A Wolf in Chic Clothing, it's quite a pressing matter to find something as classy and regal as she is. I don't want to give you the wrong impression here. She is not a diva. Not demanding or imposing in the slightest. But, there is an underlying power to her. Beneath her softness there is a royalty factor that emanates from her in a most modest and graceful way.
Scrolling through my spreadsheet of Los Angeles Coffee shops - yes, I do have one - and recalling feelings, experiences, design and locations of each, it occurred to me it there is only one spot on one street in this whole city that could even begin to do this Wolf justice: Alfred Coffee & Kitchen on Melrose Place.
Today, this Wolf in Chic Clothing would describe her style as Schizophrenic. Her outfits are all over the map - feminine, fun, creative, ironic, well thought out, whimsical, refined and her favorite adjective to use - weird. You can tell she takes pride in the pieces she puts on her body. Her styling is meticulous.
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