It’s an ADU, Their Family Home, and a... Coffee Shop?

One of Los Angeles’s newest coffee shops isn’t short on five-star reviews. There’s one from Jeff (just Jeff): "The service was quick and friendly, coffee and pastries were delicious, and ambiance was amazing. Street parking wasn’t too hard to find." Oscar Mendoza, another fan, works through their emotions like a proud parent of their graduating child: "Cutest best kept secret that's not so secret anymore. They've been open two weeks and there are already lines out the door!"

And he’s right—Granada, in Angelino Heights, is now not much of a secret. Everyone from the Los Angeles Times, to Eater, to the New York Post has stopped by for a croissant or a cortado ever since it opened at the beginning of January. On Martin Luther King Day, things hit a fever pitch with a line snaking out the door; more than 500 people were served. In June, Granada’s proprietors, Sydney Wayser and Isaac Watters, flew to New York to film a segment for The Kelly Clarkson Show, which is more than some of the most-beloved third-wave coffee shops can say.

Owing to a lot of the hoopla is that one of Los Angeles’s newest coffee shops isn’t a coffee shop—or at least it was never meant to be. During the pandemic, Sydney, who’s an interior designer, and Isaac, an architect, started building a new home, an ADU behind the duplex they were living in on Carroll Ave. Partway through they found out they were having a child. "The coffee shop concept wasn’t even a glimmer of an idea. We were like, ‘We’re going to put a potter’s wheel down here. We’re going to have band practice down here.’ And then we got pregnant and realized we'll never have band practice at home again," says Sydney, laughing. (She and Isaac are also musicians.)