Watts Coffee House

The South LA Restaurant That Rose From the Ashes — Twice | Eater LA

"On a recent Wednesday morning I felt the calm energy around Desiree Edwards’ long-running restaurant, Watts Coffee House, which had been up and running since before 8 a.m., fueling the neighborhood with soul-food comforts like fried chicken, smothered pork chops, buttermilk biscuits, and shrimp and grits. Even as dining rooms reopened with limited capacity, I observed Edwards continuing to offer only takeout, with a steady stream of regulars—Watts locals, nearby Compton residents, and long-ago Crenshaw High graduates—picking up their go-to dishes, exchanging niceties, and leaving with food in hand. Since opening in spring 1997 the coffee house has served as a beloved meeting place and the only independently owned sit-down restaurant in Watts, where diners greet one another by name, the dining room buzzes with warm, communal energy, and memorabilia and photos of neighborhood luminaries enliven every surface. I learned that the space was offered rent-free by Harold Hambrick on the condition it be a neighborhood meeting place and a training program for people recovering from substance abuse, and Edwards insists the restaurant’s role has always been to be positive, supportive, and rooted in the community rather than solely to make money—nourishing and healing the neighborhood, as she put it, one bowl of shrimp and grits at a time." - Cathy Chaplin