Maru Coffee

Joonmo Kim and Jacob Park met working at a coffee shop together and spent roughly three years planning before opening this Los Feliz room in late September 2016, the brand's first location. Neither had a formal design background, so the pair taught themselves from online videos and built the maple and sycamore furniture by hand, a detail that still shapes the room's character.

The name comes from the Korean phrase san ma ru, meaning mountaintop, a nod to the high altitude farms where the finest beans grow, and the brand is inspired by all things analog and the simplicity of good coffee. Park is a certified Q Grader. The coffee is roasted at the company's Glassell Park roastery, and the brand has since added an Arts District cafe, a Beverly Hills espresso bar and a Brooklyn location, this Hillhurst Avenue room remaining the original.