Groundwork Coffee

Richard Karno founded Groundwork in Venice, and this Rose Avenue room is where it began. The turn of the century brick building is said to have been built with a horse stable for the local carriage trade, and in the 1950s the Wolff family bought it and started a catering business. Groundwork later leased it and installed its first roaster under an old oven hood, and roasted here for about ten years.

The company became one of the first certified organic coffee roasters in Southern California in 1994 and is now a Certified B Corp that sells what it calls the first Regenerative Organic Certified coffee. Its roasteries are now in North Hollywood and Portland, and this cafe takes online orders for pickup, with a note that menu items may be limited.