Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Lovers of good food and doing good will revel in some new exciting businesses that recently opened. The Coffee Cellar (La Bodega de Café): Sustainable Coffees Community Roaster is the latest of the bunch. The Coffee Cellar is located at the MacArthur Park Sidewalk Vending District headquarters and inside Mama's Hot Tamales Café. An outgrowth of the Institute for Urban Research & Development, these projects merge progressive business philosophy with providing some damn tasty goods. Featured at the Coffee Cellar is high quality coffees originating from small coffee growers/cooperatives and ecologically sustainable, progressive coffee estates. For hard core coffee lovers who shun Starbucks’s mass produced merchandise, this will be your place. Another bonus: the Coffee Cellar roasts small batches on-site so that the coffee will never be stale.

While LAist is on the subject of how to simultaneously spend your dollars and support micro-enterprise, job skills, artisans, and environmentally conscious practices, make sure to check out the Mercado de la Paloma if you haven’t already (it's been around for several years). Esperanza Community Housing Corporation developed and operates the Mercado, a rare example of a full-service community economic development center. In sum, it’s part of Esperanza Community Housing Corporation’s overall “strategy to revitalize our neighborhood, bringing together new economic, health, social, and cultural resources under one roof.” At 3655 S. Grand Avenue you’ll find all sorts of goodies, including an art gallery, craft shops, community space, and amazing chicken tacos. All of the above are convenient for you Downtown-based worker bees.