La La Land Kind Cafe

Matcha, espresso and a hiring mission

Ceremonial-grade matcha is the centre of the drinks list, served straight, as a latte, and in seasonal builds. The Matcha Kind Latte pairs it with organic milk and the Strawberry Matcha adds fruit; on the coffee side the Kind Latte is the house drink, with lattes, cappuccinos, cortados, single-origin pour-overs and cold brew filling out the rest and a Pumpkin Spice Latte appearing seasonally. Both the espresso machines and the pour-over setups are worked for consistency rather than showmanship.

Behind the counter there is a hiring model rather than a marketing line. The company employs and mentors foster youth moving into adulthood through the La La Land Foundation, which provides employment, mentorship and life-skills training, and staff are trained for warm service as part of that. Santa Monica opened in 2021 as the first California branch, roughly two years after the original Dallas cafe, and anchored later Los Angeles locations at The Grove, in Calabasas, and at West Hollywood's Cafe de LaLa.

Yellow paint, communal tables, Montana Avenue

Order at the counter, collect from the pickup area: a flow built for morning rushes, laptop sessions and neighbourhood drop-ins. The Santa Monica room is open-plan, with communal tables, individual seating and window seats for anyone arriving alone.

The look is deliberate, bright yellow outside with playful typography and warm lighting inside, and it suits Montana Avenue's mix of boutique shopping and family traffic. The founder, Francois Reihani, built the brand around a kindness-first idea, and the visual identity carries it as much as the service does.

Matcha Kind Latte first

Start with the Matcha Kind Latte for the clearest read on the menu: ceremonial-grade matcha with organic milk, from the strongest category on the list. For a brighter version, take the Strawberry Matcha. If coffee is the priority, the Kind Latte is the house-style drink, and the cappuccinos, cortados, pour-overs and cold brew cover the classics.

For food, oatmeal fits a morning without leaning into pastry. Otherwise the case runs to muffins, cookies, cakes and croissants, with the Kind Cookie made with organic chocolate chips and the Matcha Muffin made with organic flour as the house-made picks. Vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free options are built into the menu rather than added on, which makes it easy to build either a quick pastry-and-latte stop or a fuller breakfast.