Penelope's Cafe Books & Gallery

Order a latte and a lemon bar, then find a table among the shelves. Penelope's Cafe Books & Gallery runs a cafe, a bookstore and an art gallery out of one cottage-like room in La Cañada Flintridge, with a garden patio behind it.

Coffee beside books

The coffee order to know is the latte, hot, robust and good next to a panini. Tea matters too, with a wide selection for anyone who came for the room rather than the espresso. Read the drinks as a neighbourhood cafe programme rather than a technical coffee menu. They exist to sit beside sandwiches, salads, soups, pastries and baked goods through a daytime service, in a room where books and artwork share the space with the tables.

A cottage room with a garden patio

The setting is rustic and cottage-like, small enough to feel personal. Seating runs indoors and out: an inside room, an outside area, umbrellas over a small patio, and a garden where most of the photographs come from. Service has a friendly, informal rhythm, with staff who greet regulars warmly and move quickly through lunch. It works for a solo visit, a group, families, or a laptop over free Wi-Fi, and food can be carried out as easily as eaten in.

Order the latte, then the lemon bar

Start with a latte if coffee is the reason, then move to the food, which is where the menu is widest. The savoury pattern is sandwiches, salads and soups: crisp paninis, fresh salads, several soups including chili, and soup-and-salad combinations that make lunch straightforward. Breakfast and pastries widen it further, so the room is not only a coffee-and-dessert stop. Lemon bars are the crowd favourite, which makes a latte and a lemon bar the order to make. Treat Penelope's as a cafe, bookshop and gallery in one, and use it slowly.