The Itzy Bitzy Coffee Shop In El Sereno: Tiny In Size, Mighty In Vibes

If you haven't heard, it's getting harder and harder to run a restaurant in Los Angeles. High inflation, rising labor costs amid a slew of economic factors are squeezing an already tight profit margin for so many operators.

With these headwinds, why in the world would anyone take the plunge? For Jocelyn Todd, a baker who's worked in L.A.'s restaurant industry for more than a decade, food is what she knows and loves.

"It was hard for me to look elsewhere, even though seeing all the different people that I've worked with and their struggles, but it's still like, at this point, it's in my DNA," she said.

In December, Todd opened lil'East Coffee in El Sereno, a tiny shoebox of a neighborhood coffee shop on Eastern Avenue. Originally, she had wanted a space for an in-house bakery, but what she landed on — on the other side of the street from the El Sereno Middle School — wasn't big enough even for a second espresso machine, let alone an oven.

There are no tables, just stools outside of the tiny coffee shop. Owner Jocelyn Todd says it feels more communal that way.

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lil'East Coffee

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"It's 8 square feet by 8 square feet," she said. "[That's] the whole place where clients can come in."

Todd started scouting for a location for several years in Northeast L.A. but was coming up empty. She resumed her search after moving to El Sereno three years ago, specifically focused on Eastern Avenue, one of the neighborhood's main drags that lost a number of longstanding businesses during the pandemic. The strip was also walkable from where she lives.

"It was COVID, a lot of shops weren't opening up," she said. "So I'd seen a place that looked like they weren't operating and I would just leave letters under the doors or I found the addresses to the owners and I would just write letters and say, 'I want to do something in the community and here's my number.'"

One day, she drove by a half an empty storefront where eastside deep dish pizza purveyor Doughbox used to be before moving to Highland Park. The new owner of the building was fixing up his office in the other half of the space. Todd stopped by to chat, and they hit it off right away.

A cut of joe from lil'East Coffee

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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"He just left this amount of space, and he was going to figure out how to deal with it. He honestly hoped that something like this would come in," she said.

As for her, it felt like a now-or-never moment. "Even though it wasn't the exact size that I was imagining, I didn't know when that chance was going to come again," Todd said.

With the location settled, next came the fun and hard part: to make every inch of it count.

Todd mocked up the space in her driveway using tape and cardbox to try to figure out the best configuration, and took heart in that tiny retail spaces, though not exactly a staple in Los Angeles, are tried and true everywhere else.

"There's so much great inspiration in Asia and in New York," she said, adding that her husband and an architect were key in helping to come up with the design.

The tiny coffee shop takes its inspiration from Asia and New York in maximizing space.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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At the end, it meant building shelves that are only 6 inches deep, finding the smallest appliances and hardware possible, and measuring things "a million times."

"It's a coffee shop. You pick the espresso machine and knowing the exact measurements of the espresso machine and then you basically go from there. What's next? I need a grinder for the espresso machine. How wide is that? I need a sink next to that. How wide is that? And then it's just tick, tick, tick as you go," she said.

As to a seating area, Todd commandeered the sidewalks and put stools in front her shop. No tables, just stools. "It lends to being more like communal," she said.

lil'East joins a small but growing community of coffee houses in El Sereno, like Holy Ground, Hers Bakery and Tierra Mia. A month in, Todd says the coolest thing, besides opening up her own coffee shop, is how much the neighborhood has welcomed her.

"It's tons of foot traffic. I hear over and over again how excited [people] are to have something to walk to in the neighborhood. They're on their way to school, they're on their way to the bus stop. They're on their way to the skate park down the street," she said.

"Honestly, I'm thankful and surprised that the space we designed actually works. I'm surprised and excited that so many people that have lived here for generation after generation, they're excited that I'm here."