The Brief

There’s nothing like your favorite cup of coffee. And better yet, there’s nothing like finding a local coffee shop that pairs a great brew with the perfect ambience.

Whether you’re on the hunt for an aromatic roast that makes you slow down, sip, and smile or want to fuel up during an hours-long study session, Boyle Heights has no shortage of masterful baristas and cozy nooks to fill your needs.

As the coffee shop scene grows in the neighborhood — offering everything from foamy lattes, solid brunch bites and charming community spaces filled with books and art — we sipped our way through five spots to help you find the hidden gems.

Take the tour, share your favorites and tell us what we missed.

A barista at Picaresca

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Kate Valdez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Picaresca Barra de Cafe

Popular drink: Café de Olla latte

Hidden gem: El Pino latte

It was probably not the best idea to open a cafe during the pandemic. But the owners of Picaresca Barra de Cafe went for it. After almost three years inside a mini-mall on Soto Street, the business relocated to a larger, more visible Boyle Heights location last November. The place is a popular location among locals and beyond. On any given day, friends meet up here for a cup of joe, a pastry or chilaquiles — one of a handful of hot food items on the menu.

The Evergreen latte at Picaresca Barra De Cafe

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Kate Valdez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Picaresca is known for its locally roasted coffee and homemade café de olla syrup. But what’s also noteworthy is how its signature menu is crafted and named after Eastside symbols.

Specialty-curated lattes include The Evergreen, named after the shop’s street location. Try the signature drink, El Pino, a blend of rosemary, chamomile and cinnamon among other spices, named after the iconic East L.A. landmark. For those looking for a traditional brew, you can’t go wrong with the customer favorite, the Café de Olla latte, prepared hot or iced.

The Latte Del Barrio and the Ülëw Latte

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Jackie Ramirez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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ÜLËW

Popular drink: Latte Del Barrio

Hidden gem: Ülëw latte

Operating inside the Soto Street mini mall that Picaresca once called home, ÜLËW Coffee and Juice serves up drinks just as unique as their name. Ülëw (oo – LAY- OH), which means earth in Maya K'iche', offers a coffee experience that stems from traditional Guatemalan ingredients with a twist on conventional coffee house staples.

Ülëw has something for everyone, crafting a menu for caffeine lovers and those looking for health-conscious ingredients. From customer favorites like the Latte del Barrio, a dark espresso base, oat milk, finished with cinnamon and condensed milk, or a hidden gem, the Ülëw latte, a bright yellow sip with ingredients like turmeric and ginger. Owners Jefri Lindo, Michaela Zholovnik and barista Elvis Gonzalez are serving quality across the menu as each item is fresh, balanced and full of flavor, whether you’re there for a quick bite or a caffeine fix.

Acurrúcame cafe on Cesar Chavez Avenue

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Jackie Ramirez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Acurrúcame Coffee Bar

Popular drink: Strawberry Matcha

Hidden gem: Tropical Tonic

After ending a 27-year stint selling pagers, Reyes and Esmeralda Perez wanted to launch a taqueria. Lucky for caffeine lovers, they landed in the coffee business instead and opened up Acurrúcame Coffee Bar.

What makes Accurúcame a community favorite is its seasonal secret menu, known only to loyal customers. The custom-made concoctions are advertised on social media and are only available for a limited time.

Reyes decided to add a strawberry matcha as a nod to his daughter and her favorite drink. The presentation is meant to show the blend of cultures: the bottom half of the drink is a nostalgic secret recipe resembling a strawberry licuado, topped with bright green matcha. Today, it’s a customer favorite.

The Tropical Tonic, Strawberry Matcha and Dulce Tomys Latte

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Jackie Ramirez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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The hidden gem of the shop, the Tropical Tonic, involves a blend of coffee, pineapple, orange and other secret ingredients to form an alternative to the classic cream and sugar. The tonic holds a special place on the menu as Reyes offered customers different versions of the drink before he found the perfect recipe.

Barista Xuan Carlos Espinoza pours a Berry Jamaica refresher

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Kate Valdez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Cafe Cafe Mobile Coffee

Popular drink: Brown Café

Hidden gem: Turmeric latte

Cafe Cafe Mobile Coffee began its journey as a pop-up concept, working within community spaces in multiple locations. Today, it’s housed in a co-op kitchen on Cesar Chavez Avenue with fellow partners Milpa Grille and Macheen. Baristas are known for their personable service, recognizing regulars and welcoming customers to its expansive menu.

Cafe Cafe’s coffee blends are carefully curated. The shop offers single-origin coffee and a different roast for each drink. Among the most popular is the Brown Café, made from their signature mix blend with raw honey, organic cinnamon and non-dairy cream. Non-caffeinated options include Jamaica refreshers and their hidden gem, the Turmeric latte, made with organic ground turmeric, cinnamon and sweetened with raw honey, offered hot or iced.

A library of books sits next to items for sale from local small businesses

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Kate Valdez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Café Girasol

Popular drink: Café de Olla latte

Hidden gem: Beetroot Rose

Launched as a pandemic project, Café Girasol started when owner Patty Hernandez and her husband lost their jobs during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Their commercial at-home espresso machine became popular among their coffee-loving friends and after a successful run selling from their home, the couple found a brick-and-mortar location on Cesar Chavez Avenue.

More than just a coffee shop, the space has become a community-oriented venue, hosting open mic nights, acoustic sessions and comedy shows. The shop also carries merchandise from small businesses all over the Eastside.

If you’re there for a show or doing some shopping, pick up the popular Café de Olla latte made with homemade syrup consisting of piloncillo, canela, clavo, star anise, among other spices, and topped with a fluffy layer of vanilla cold foam and cinnamon.

If you’re looking for a pop of color, the Beetroot Rose drink stands out in bright pink, made with beetroot powder, cinnamon and ginger, sweetened with homemade rose syrup. Celebrating just two years since its opening, this new kid on the block has created a community space open for everyone.

Facing a multi-million-dollar budget shortfall for the upcoming school year, Pasadena Unified's school board voted unanimously this week to finalize a plan to send layoff notices to more than 160 staff members as part of an effort to balance its budget that began last fall.

The district has maintained that the job reductions are necessary because of a $30 million budget deficit, part of a financial crisis made worse by the Eaton Fire.

California schools must notify employees about potential layoffs for the following school year by March 15. The number of current employees who will be out of a job next year is still unclear, in part, because people may be reassigned to vacant positions. In the past, PUSD has also rescinded some layoff notices before they took effect.

Parents, teachers and union leaders at the Thursday meeting criticized the district for targeting teachers and school staff for layoffs instead of administrative positions.

“ Teaching for PUSD means anxiety every March as it approaches, because we don't know if we're going to get to keep our job or not,” said Genevieve Miller, a PUSD teacher who said her children also graduated from the district. “ There's a different way forward.”

Board members acknowledged the decision they made was difficult.

“ I just want to be very clear that this is not the outcome that anybody prefers,” Board member Yarma Velázquez said. “Workforce reductions and the continuous, year after year position of being in this place where we have to reduce positions is draining and it is painful.

“I am very aware of what the implications are for all of the people that work here at PUSD.”

The board meeting

At the meeting, which started at 4 p.m. and nearly lasted until midnight, parents highlighted the potential of families and teachers choosing to leave the district because of the layoffs.

“ Right now, the [PUSD] community is in fight mode, as you can see from the turnout and other comments being made here tonight,” said parent Neil Tyler. “But if you approve these resolutions as proposed tonight, a large chunk of the community will quickly shift to flight mode and the death spiral of this district will begin.”

Jonathan Gardner, president of United Teachers of Pasadena, told the board that the cuts meant the district would lose dozens of middle and high school teachers and child development staff.

“ The best thing for kids and staff is always stability and making sure that we have full staff,” Gardner said. “The priorities should be working from the student experience out. Instead, what we see is millions and millions of dollars being spent on contracted services and millions and millions being spent on extra staffing at the central office.”

Speakers also noted that Pasadena Unified had endured years of budget cuts, which affected teachers, librarians and office staff.

Others said PUSD was failing to meet its requirement under California law to commit at least 55% of the district’s education expenses to teacher salaries.

LAist reached out to the district for comment on this but has not yet received a response.

Pasadena Unified board members said the cuts were necessary, especially after warnings from regulators that they could be out of compliance with requirements to balance the budget.

“For the sake of the district's solvency, I feel like it would be irresponsible if I took an action that put this district in jeopardy,” board member Michelle Bailey said Thursday night. “I can't in good conscience take that kind of action.”

About the budget issues

Concerns over declining enrollment numbers, which are tied to funding, have been growing since the Eaton Fire.

A report commissioned by a state agency recommended that the state increase its funding for the school system to help with fire recovery.

Some observers said Pasadena Unified’s budget issues date back much longer than that.

“Over the past 30 years, Pasadena Unified has faced a mounting fiscal calamity, one that you can no longer ignore or postpone,” Octavio Castelo, director of business advisory services for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, told Pasadena Unified’s board in November. “Despite your best efforts and intentions, the district has not been able to live within its means."

Cutting staff will likely mean losing some school programs, including language and music.

“ You have Mary Jackson [Elementary in Altadena] — it's a science magnet school, and they're cutting the science teacher,” Gardner, the teacher’s union president, told LAist. “That's the heart of the school.”

What happens next

The layoff notices are expected to be sent to affected staff members by mid-March.

The district will have until summer to finalize the list.

K-12 education reporter Mariana Dale contributed reporting.

The Los Angeles Unified School Board voted unanimously Friday to place Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

The FBI searched Carvalho’s home and district offices Wednesday. A DOJ spokesperson said the agency had a court-authorized warrant but declined to provide additional details. The FBI told LAist media partner CBS LA that the underlying affidavit remained under court-ordered seal.

The board also appointed current Chief of School Operations Andres Chait as acting superintendent after the seven-hour closed meeting Thursday and Friday.

“I know that this is a very challenging time,” said Board President Scott Schmerelson in a brief public statement after the decision was announced. “I want you to know that the board believes in you, supports you and knows that you will continue to do your very best to support the students and families of the district.”

Schmerelson clarified in an email to LAist that he was referring to Chait. The seven-member board exited the meeting room without taking questions. Carvalho was not present and has not made a public statement since the searches Wednesday.

The district posted a statement online later in which Schmerelson wrote that “today’s action is aimed at fulfilling our promise to students and families to provide an excellent public education without distraction.”

The board’s decision provided clarity about district leadership but did not shed light on the reason for the searches, which have been the subject of widespread speculation.

“While we understand the need for information, we cannot discuss the specifics of this matter pending investigation,” read the district’s statement.

Who is the acting superintendent?

Chait has worked for the district for nearly three decades. The chief of school operations’ responsibilities are varied and include athletics, the district’s office of emergency management and staff investigations. Chait has presented to the board on everything from school safety to the cell phone ban and the district’s calendar.

Chief of School Operations Andres Chait has worked for LAUSD for nearly three decades.

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Courtesy of Los Angeles Unified School District

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“I am humbled by the board’s confidence in appointing me to serve as acting superintendent during this critical time," Chait said in the district’s statement. "Our focus remains clear: to ensure stability, continuity and strong leadership for our students, families and employees."

What we know about AllHere, LAUSD’s AI tool

A spokesperson for the FBI in Miami confirmed Wednesday’s L.A. searches are linked to a search of a South Florida home the same day. That property, identified by local media outlets, belongs to Debra Kerr, who was associated with the company LAUSD contracted to create a short-lived AI tool called AllHere.

Federal authorities have not connected AllHere to this week’s investigation.

Los Angeles Unified approved a $6.2 million contract with AllHere in June 2023 to develop a tool that would create an “individual acceleration plan,” using district data and featuring an artificial intelligence chatbot.

LAUSD debuted “Ed” the following March as a "personal assistant" to students that would point them toward mental health resources and nudge students who were falling behind.

Within three months of its debut, the company behind Ed, AllHere, furloughed the bulk of its staff; its CEO was later charged with fraud. The district defended the process it used to debut that chatbot, which cost $3 million.

Parents and educators demanded transparency after the district shut down the chatbot.

Many questions remain

The federal investigation comes at a time when LAUSD is financially strained, cutting hundreds of jobs and facing pressure from the district’s largest labor unions to settle new contracts.

SEIU Local 99, which represents school support staff and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) have issued statements calling on the district to clearly communicate about the status of the superintendent and the investigation.

"UTLA educators and our school communities have long raised concerns about LAUSD rapidly increasing spending on education tech and outside contractors, while investment in classrooms and educators has declined,” UTLA wrote in a statement provided to LAist.

Carvalho has been superintendent of LAUSD since 2022, and the board unanimously renewed his contract in 2025. Prior to coming to L.A., Carvalho had worked for the Miami-Dade County school district for decades, 30 years as a teacher and the last 14 years as the district's supervisor.

Carvalho's time at LAUSD has included a number of wins for the district, including gains in test scores and participation in AP classes.

After threatening to sever ties with Scouting America and kick the youth group off military bases worldwide, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday gave a six-month reprieve to the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America.

Hegseth made the announcement in a video posted to X, framing it as an ultimatum to Scouting to conform to the Trump administration's anti-DEI agenda. He detailed his many criticisms of the group, saying Scouts had "lost their way" by changing the organization's name and "watering down" what he called "the focus on God as the ruler of the universe."

He accused the Scouts of promoting "an insidious, radical, woke ideology that is anti-America and anti-American."

Hegseth also made clear he thinks the organization should go back to being exclusively male. " Ideally, I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men," he said. "Maybe someday."

The Pentagon's promise to reevaluate its relationship with Scouting in six months was nonetheless a retreat of sorts for Hegseth. Today's announcement came after word of Hegseth's plans to shun Scouting sparked weeks of backlash, including from some Republicans. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska has said of Hegseth's plans: "I've heard a lot of dumb stuff, but this is up there."

In a meeting with Scouting officials in January, Hegseth had demanded that the organization change its name back to Boy Scouts and remove some 200,000 young girls from its membership.

" I knew in the meeting that my board, my organization, was not gonna make those changes," Scouting America CEO Roger Krone said in an interview with NPR.

Krone explained that the organization considers including girls to be a service to families.

" When I was a youth, we left parts of the family in the parking lot on Friday night when we went camping," Krone said. "Long before I came back to Scouting, our board made several decisions, by a vote of our national council, that we were gonna serve the entire family."

A week after the Pentagon meeting, Scouting officials sent a letter to Hegseth outlining proposed concessions. While they wouldn't change the name or kick out girls, they would drop a Citizenship in Society merit badge that promoted diversity and had been instituted after the killing of George Floyd. They would also add a Military Service merit badge, waive membership fees for military families and offer a public rededication "of duty to God, duty to country, and service."

Even after the concessions, which Scouting officials said they planned to implement regardless, a spokesman told NPR the group expected an announcement from the Pentagon severing ties was imminent. But after NPR reported on the rift, Krone said Scouting's members and alumni started lobbying against breaking the century-old partnership.

Hegseth has for years criticized Scouting for allegedly caving to progressive politics. He repeated the claim Friday. "Scouting became an organization that no longer supported and celebrated boys," Hegseth said. "They even welcomed the destructive myth of gender fluidity and transgenderism to infiltrate their membership."

The Secretary also highlighted another concession. "Scouting America will modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity," he said. "That means that the application, any application, will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant's birth certificate."

Krone noted that the Scouting application already has only two sex designations. " Tomorrow it will be the same application that we had yesterday," he said. "We ask for that information so we can operate our units in a way that ensures that our kids are safe and are safeguarded."

In the wake of sexual abuse allegations that resulted in a $2.46 billion victim compensation fund, Krone says Scouting has implemented stringent policies. Along with other practices, he said they ask for gender information " so that we know from a tenting standpoint and from a bathroom standpoint how to run our programs."

Severing ties with Scouts would have meant banning scouts from meeting on military bases, withdrawing military medical and logistical assistance to the quadrennial Scout Jamboree and eliminating the program that allows Eagle Scouts to enlist at advanced rank and pay.

As reported by NPR, the Pentagon had gone so far as to coordinate with the heads of the different branches on what a separation might mean. The Pentagon circulated a draft notification internally meant for the congressional Armed Services Committees, justifying the withdrawal of military support for the Jamboree. The memo, reviewed by NPR, claimed that providing medical and logistical help to the campout, scheduled for July, would threaten national security.

With this six-month trial period, base access for Scout troops will continue and Jamboree assistance is moving forward for now, including recruitment coordination. As Hegseth pointed out on X, many boy Scouts have become high-ranking military officers, or have served the country in other ways.

"Six Boy Scouts have been elected president of the United States," Hegseth said. "Eleven of the 12 Men to walk on the Moon [were] boy Scouts."

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