Would you like a nonfat latte with that Big Mac? That’s what you’ll probably be hearing in the near future, if you’re a fan of the Golden Arches. McDonald’s announced recently plans to add “coffee bars” to its 14,000 U.S. locations starting this year. They’ll also be hiring baristas to work the new stations serving up mochas, lattes and the Frappe – kind of a like a Starbucks Frappuccino or a Coffee Bean Ice......

The sweetened, spiced tea drink we know as chai originated as a hot drink in India. Traditionally it’s a combination of looseleaf black tea, spices, sweetener, and hot milk. The chai latté has become a recognized staple in restaurants and hipster cafés throughout the western world these days, served hot or iced. There are many ways to make a chai latté, and the ubiquity of readymade pre-sweetened mixes makes a chai composed of unprocessed ingredients......

STARDOLL.com is the new best thing I have ever seen. Having only scratched the surface of this sugary pop paperdoll fest, I speak on little authority as to the full functionality of the site. What I do know, however, is all you really need to know -- you get to play dress-up with your favorite icons, and onto some of their faces you can also apply makeup. The end. Been a while since you've......

While I've always enjoyed shopping and strolling down the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, it's never really been on the top of my list of dining destinations. Most of the restaurants on 3rd Street are overpriced and/or serve mediocre food. Though I'm a fan of Angelato (they boast 100 flavors of gelato, what's not to love?) and usually stop by the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for my usual ice blended drink, finding......

"It [Pinkberry] was perfectly fine, I don't get the hype, and if you're looking for me on a 'normal' fro-yo night you can still find me at Studio Yogurt." ~ Das Ubergeek Studio City's staple yogurt shop, Studio Yogurt, has found its competition in the form of a 2-minute walk around the corner dashed with mangoes and Cap'n Crunch. LA's latest obsession has found itself in the Valley at the same spot where we......

Now a “career woman", Leilani Wertens searches for the perfect meal during her lunch hour in an oft neglected part of Los Angeles—the newly revitalized downtown district. Read about her weekly culinary adventures on LAist. by Leilani Wertens I am a self-proclaimed coffee junkie. With a Starbucks just around the corner from my apartment and a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf just across the street from my office, what else could I be? Grande......

Who doesn't love the dramatic skills of Meryl Streep? Who doesn't think Anne Hathaway isn't the cutest thing? And who doesn't think the director of several episodes of "Sex and the City" and "Entourage" (including the pilot) will probably put together a good film? Ah, who cares? All we know is in order to promote the new Streep/Hathaway/Stanley Tucci flick, "The Devil Wears Prada" you can get a free large cup of joe at......

It's a gorgeous June day in LA, and LAist is looking for a little something something to do tonight. We're debating a few things like: 1. Heading for the ocean after work, though the thought of heading across town (via the I-10) at rush hour really doesn't appeal that much. Although a drink at Shutters on the Beach really does. 2. Looking at the doggies (and their owners) while hiking Runyon Canyon. 3. Dropping......

(alternate title: Things to Do in LA When You're Not Dead) We'll assume that this weekend you're either a music nerd and heading to the desert or a book nerd and heading to UCLA (and if you're both, like us, you're probably weeping into your coffee right now just thinking about the hard choices) so we'll get your Friday started off right with some events for both the brain and the body. Do watch......

Breakfast, for this LAist, makes for some great bribery material. So recently, when a co-worker and frequent dining companion made some plans with us to do some weekend work they were kind enough to throw breakfast in the deal. Of course, we had to pick the place, using two vital breakfast joint criteria: Somewhere new to us, and somewhere with great pancakes. And that's how we ended up at The Griddle Cafe to see......

The hallowed downtown institution, Philippe the Original, is famous for "creating the 'French Dip Sandwich' and serving the 10 cent cup of coffee Since 1918, Philippe's has been most famous for dipping the French rolls into au jus and then serving up very yummy sandwiches of beef, pork, lamb, ham and turkey between the bread. Like Pink's, it's an experience that every Angeleno should try once. The sandwiches are reasonably priced $4.90 for most......

So you know you should be shopping for Christmas but you're just not yet ready to drop the big bucks. Here's a few local hints to get you going, painlessly. The MOCA store has cool arty holiday cards; the pic above is from the card designed by SoCal artist Mark Ryden. CandyBlog reviews Sharfenberger Chocolate Coverd Cacao Nibs, finds them superb. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was NBC's top download on their first day......

It's rivalry week and a cursory view of our blogroll shows the Trojan/Bruin war rages on. Boi From Troy is, obviously, almost all USC all the time this week while Loteria Chicana and Ultratart both wax nostalgic with dreams of past glory. Caroline on Crack wants you to visit Hunky Santa at the Beverly Center. Hunky Santa? What, no Hot Hannukah Harriett dancing the horah for the lovers of ladies? Was that enough alliteration......

The number of film festivals held in this town seems only slightly outnumbered by the number of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf outlets. But tomorrow, AFI Fest 2005 (Nov. 3-13) opens -- and in its 19th year -- this is one that shouldn't be ignored. A few of the week's highlights include: Walk the Line: The Johnny Cash biopic, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Man in Black and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash,......

Thanks to all the coffee criminals in Los Angeles County, the Coffee Bean punch card is dead. We must salute a bunch of really ingenious individuals who had recently started the trend of selling actual Coffee Bean metallic punchers over the Internet, causing the coffee maven to notify their customers that starting October 15th, their punch cards will be nothing more than a holy piece of pink. That's right -- if you have ten,......

It seems to us that in recent history, say five to ten years ago, "going for coffee" was the thing to do. Rowdy teens got rowdier on enormous ceramic mugfuls of sugary mochas topped with mounds of whipped cream, the intellectual set sipped espresso, and everyone in between cradled warm mugs of stiff beany brews. It was almost as if, for a mere moment or two, that "going for coffee" was more in than......

What can LAist say about the trendiest, most-ego centric, annoying, crowded, attitude-y coffee shop in all of Los Angeles? Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #17 8591 Sunset Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90069 Hours: Monday - Thursday 6:00 AM - 11:00 PM Friday 6:00 AM - 12:00 AM Saturday 7:00 AM - 12:00 AM Sunday 7:00 AM - 11:00 PM Conversations at the flagship "you must be seen here" Coffee Bean almost always center around......

Back from the Holidays, LAist brings you yet another look at people and coffee and buzz-like activity (we're going into our fifth month, people) as it relates to Los Angeles. This week, LAist took a trip to the hip and happening and happy and horror-filled location that is Hollywood -- more specifically, Sunset Boulevard where there's more billboards per capita than in any other place in town. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #16 7915......

If you're one of LA's least fortunate citizens, you're probably feeling a little down right now. The holiday season is upon us, and yet, for you, it brings no joy. You're jobless. Homeless. Hopeless. But wait: what's this? Someone approaches, a kind, gentle soul with a smiling face and a tailored Italian suit. He's reaching out to you! Maybe he's going to give you a job, or a housing voucher. "A turkey sandwich, at......

About four months in the works, The Coffee Buzz continues its quest to put a finer point on neighborhoods, the people who frequent them, and the coffee they drink. And this week, LAist travels to yet another in-mall coffee haunt, taking us to the... Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #15 14006 Riverside Drive Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 Hours: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM Saturday 8:00AM - 8:00 PM Sundy 8:00 AM......

Although LAist has visited some coffee haunts in the last few months that felt as if we had miraculously ended up in a totally different part of the world (i.e. Pasadena), there are other pockets of Los Angeles that also make one feel as if they've taken a trip through the Twilight Zone. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #14 7502 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90046 Hours: Monday - Friday 6:30 AM - 8:30......

Aaah, lucky number thirteen. Well, here on LAist, there's no such thing as an unlucky number, although there is such a thing as a coffee shop that's famous. You know, in sort of a trendy, wannabe, Paris Hilton kind of way. Coffe Bean & Tea Leaf #13 8793 Beverly Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90048 Hours: Monday - Friday 6:00 AM - 12:00 AM Saturday - Sunday 7:00 AM - 12:00 AM If you watched......

Sometimes Los Angeles may be Los Angeles but doesn't feel like Los Angeles, which is totally the case for the wonderful town they call Pasadena. Nice and far away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, the self-entitlement of the Westside and the Hip-Factor of Hollywood, Pasadena and the coffee shops that reside there feel normal, comfortable and relaxing. And yes, that's even the case when there's a bomb scare. Coffee Bean & Tea......

This week, LAist decided to redirect our navigational computers from Santa Monica back over the hill and into the abyss (or what some call The Valley) to spend some time at the coffee shop that some might call the carousel coffee shop and what others may call the ironically closed coffee shop. Either way, whatever you call it, it's located here: Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #11 16101 Ventura Boulevard Encino, CA 91416 Monday......

It looks like it belongs on the island of Maui. It's green and lush and beautiful. Yet it's strictly for the game programmers of Activision, the weight-lifters of 24 Hour Fitness and a variety of business park-ers who spend their 9 to 5 here... Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #10 3150 Ocean Park Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90403 Hours: Monday - Saturday 6:00 AM - 8:00 PM Sunday 7:00 AM - 8:00 PM Down......

With it, your Mondays are full of life, excitement and enthusiasm (at least until lunchtime when the caffeine runs out). Without it, you are useless — inundated with headaches and less-than-stellar attitudes. Let's face it: the buzz is your friend, and without it you may never reach your full potential. But some people make it their life, as LAist found out this week when we visited... Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #9 829 Wilshire......

Celebrating almost two full months in existence, LAist's "The Coffee Buzz" continues its exploration of Los Angeles neighborhoods and the people who populate it as colored by the coffee they drink. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #8 1500 Westwood Boulevard, Westwood Hours: Monday - Sunday 6:00 AM - 12:00 AM Just south of Wilshire Boulevard and the University of California at Los Angeles, the Westwood Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf could be dubbed the......

Let's face it -- LAist knows that getting your caffiene-buzz on a Monday morning is tough enough simply because it's a Monday morning. But having to decide where to go, if there's enough parking, how quickly you can do it and which route to take are all legitimate and complicated decisions. But when competition becomes so crazy that the same unnamed beanery puts one of their stores directly across the street from another one......

When art, technology and style meets coffee, you can only imagine the kinds of people that come out of the woodwork to take part in such a hybrid experience. And today is no different, as LAist continues our travels across Los Angeles county, using an innocent little generic coffee store in an innocent way so that we may see the innocent people living their innocent lives with said innocent little generic coffee shop as......

LAist often spends Monday mornings thinking back fondly to the time when our parents and their parents tumbled out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen and poured themselves a cup of ambition, and yawned and stretched and tried to come to life...It's just too bad for them that coffee wasn't the big business that it is today. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf #4 12930 Ventura Boulevard Studio City, CA 91604 Hours: Monday-Friday 4:30......