Jones Coffee Roasters

Chuck Jones was introduced to coffee at five years old on his family's farm in Guatemala and learned to roast as a kid using a popcorn popper and a barbecue grill; he and his father Larry started Jones Coffee Roasters in 1994. The family has grown coffee at Finca Dos Marias in the San Marcos highlands since the 1870s, and the shop's chair logo traces back to regulars who started hauling in their own seating once the cafe outgrew its permitted capacity.

The Raymond Ave shop is the roastery: a converted warehouse near ArtCenter's south campus where the Probat sits in view of the counter and beans move from raw to bagged in front of customers. Nothing in the room matches on purpose: neon signs and chandeliers hang next to a row of mismatched chairs from the ceiling, a nod to the regulars who dragged in their own seating once the place hit its legal capacity, and the brick walls carry murals and loud, colorful paintings. A second floor works as an informal gallery for local artists. Time Out called it a living museum to all-things-beans, and that holds: there's no Wi-Fi, and the draw is watching the work happen rather than settling in with a laptop. A shaded courtyard patio out front handles the overflow, dogs and strollers included.