The brand new café opens on Vanderbilt Ave. this week.
Photograph: Lucia Bell-Epstein
When Natasha Pickowicz was in search of areas to host a celebration for her first cookbook, Extra Than Cake, she zeroed in on Canyon Espresso’s Echo Park café. “I used to be operating into scores of individuals I knew that weren’t even there for the e-book occasion — they had been simply hanging on the market as a result of it’s a genuinely enjoyable and chill place,” she remembers. “I feel Casey and Ally embody this type of easy, easygoing coolness.”
Co-founders Casey Wojtalewicz and Ally Walsh have managed to construct a popularity for vibe curation, regardless that Canyon operates only one café to enrich its nationwide wholesale roasting enterprise. Chappell Roan, Harry Kinds, Zoë Kravitz, and Lorde have all been recognized to cease in, whereas neighbors meet — as in, for the primary time — on line. “We heard from the neighborhood about how rather more they felt linked to their literal neighbors,” Wojtalewicz says. “We heard individuals who stated, ‘I by no means knew my next-door neighbor till you opened right here, and now I’ve dinner with them often.’”
That response is a part of the explanation they’re opening the second café, this one in Prospect Heights. (Opening day is scheduled for March 19.) Transplants are already thrilled. “I miss L.A. espresso retailers, the place you actually go to decelerate as a substitute of refueling on caffeine on the go,” says Mélanie Masarin, the founding father of the nonalcoholic-cocktail model Ghia, who moved to New York final yr. “I loved the 25-minute stroll up and down a hill to Canyon for an awesome cup of espresso and a labneh toast on a thick and scrumptious piece of bread in a sunny nook.”
The toast, the vibes, and the espresso are all right here in a vivid, ethereal area designed by Klein Company that mimics the wood-and-limestone look of the unique. A mural, commissioned by painter John Zabawa, depicts a bowl of citrus and apples as a nod to the bounty of each the East and West Coasts. (Canyon serves fresh-squeezed orange juice in Echo Park; right here, it’s apple cider.) The pastries will probably be provided by Elbow Bread (the bakery’s first-ever wholesale account) and Amanda Perdomo. Brooklyn’s Masha Tea will supply a particular café-only mix. The brand new café can even supply Canyon’s unique toast and sandwich menu from chef James Wayman.
For Walsh, who grew up on Lengthy Island, the brand new café is one thing of a homecoming: Her mom grew up in Brooklyn, and her siblings nonetheless reside right here. And since the wholesale enterprise already sells to shoppers right here — Levain and Simon Kim’s COTE are among the many East Coast clients — they’ve discovered a receptive viewers. “I’m past elated to welcome them with open arms in Brooklyn,” says the chef, mannequin, and occasion planner Tara Thomas.
“The vibes of their Echo Park store are immaculate. Positively up there with Zabar’s for me by way of the standard of the beans and the espresso. I’m so excited for them to open it’s not even humorous,” writes one person on the sub-Reddit r/ProspectHeights. “Canyon blows each espresso store in Brooklyn out of the water,” declares one other. Alas, should you get pleasure from espresso and vibes and don’t reside close to Vanderbilt Avenue, by no means concern. A second Los Angeles café is already months from opening, and extra outposts are probably slated for New York Metropolis and past.
Espresso, a cappuccino, and toast with peanut butter and jam.
Photograph: Lucia Bell-Epstein
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