Goodpeople

Chuck Herrera's parents came to Los Angeles as Nicaraguan refugees in 1979, and the shop's name came out of a 2017 conversation about who to work with, Chuck ending each account of a purveyor or a hire the same way: they are good people, buena gente, the Spanish for vouching for someone. His wife Dee was a customer before she ran the operation, a drink carries her name, and the house motto is good people bad habits.

GoodPeople's front is a blue-painted facade with its name dripping in pink across the top and a street mural down the wall, and the window carries a pink neon reminder that coffee comes from Black and brown countries, above a sidewalk bench where people sit with their cups. Inside, a weekly arrangement from Sharon's Flowers stands on the bar beside the pastry case, and the patio out back is turf and tables with a white shipping container down one side and a tent over the tables at night.