Maméya Coffee Roasters

The wait is the product here: nothing is roasted until somebody orders it, which is how this Kobe roaster has worked since 1995 and how it works now in a Laguna Niguel plaza suite. The brand is Kobe, not Tokyo — owner Daisuke N. is firm about that.

• Roast-to-order bags
• A pour-over while the roaster runs
• Choosing an origin off the shelf
• A mellow sit with jazz playing

All roasting happens in the shop, over an open gas flame, after you order — a 21-coffee retail wall named mostly to country or region, with one lot reaching farm level: Panama SHB EP Boquete Finca La Santa at $19. To drink there, it's $3.50 for drip or $6 for a pour-over.

The room is a small plaza suite worked into something closer to a coffee museum: a pale slat wall, wood-and-black-metal benches, jazz playing, and open shelving of bean canisters over barrels of green coffee at the front. The display is also the menu — you pick a bean off the shelf and it roasts over an open flame while you wait.