La La Land

Colour-led lattes at the counter

The iced Butterfly Latte is the drink the counter is built around: matcha, blue butterfly pea flower and the milk of your choice, layered blue over green in the glass. The Strawberry Fields Latte works the same way, strawberry and beetroot set against matcha for a pink-and-green split. At The Grove there is a Cloud 9 Latte specific to that shop, cotton candy milk tea under butterfly-blue skies and buttercream clouds. Matcha and tea lattes are the core categories here rather than a sideline to espresso. Each drink is built to be looked at before it is tasted, which is why the layering gets as much attention as the flavour does.

The coffee is presented as good coffee and treats rather than as a roaster's programme, and nobody at the counter is discussing origin lots or brew methods. What the house sells is the drink you can see and the room around it.

Yellow rooms and a foundation behind them

Yellow is the signature, carried through the rooms, the cups and the service, and the effect is a bright daytime café rather than a quiet neighbourhood coffee bar. Seating is social, counter service is quick, and the format takes a ten-minute stop and a long meet-up equally well.

Behind it sits the La La Land Foundation, the company's nonprofit arm, which creates opportunities for foster children moving into adulthood. That mission is not a footnote to the brand; it is why the language of kindness turns up on everything here.

Which branch, and what to order

Los Angeles started with The Grove in 2023, which brought the Dallas-founded business into one of the city's busiest retail and lifestyle settings, near the plaza's double-decker trolley. It works as a stop between shops and a meeting point rather than a place to work quietly. The West 3rd Street shop in Beverly Grove is the other address, and it sits more comfortably in that neighbourhood's café circuit.

Start with the Butterfly Latte, which shows the matcha side and the colour thinking in a single glass. Take the Strawberry Fields Latte if you want fruit rather than grass. At The Grove, order the Cloud 9 Latte, since it exists nowhere else. Treat the whole thing as a bright, social café visit shaped by signature drinks, not as a specialty coffee tasting.