"Cognoscenti started as a pop up inside of Eagle Rock’s Proof Bakery. They opened this standalone cafe a few years back in the center of Culver City’s Arts District. They’re known for their revolving selection of beans and tasty Proof Bakery pastries. If you’re looking for a low-key place to get some work done or a mid day break, this is your spot." - Rapt Studio
"Culver City’s modernist Cognoscenti Coffee started in 2009 and is staffed by friendly baristas who know everything about coffee. Cognoscenti doesn’t use fancy drink names and focuses on producing quality drip coffee, cappuccino, lattes, and cold brew in the Fashion District, Downtown LA, and Culver City. The banana sourced from Friends & Family always hits the spot, too." - Mona Holmes
"Cognoscenti is a local roaster with three shops around LA that stick to the standard lineup of espresso drinks, cold brews, and pour-overs—nothing overly fancy. The diversity lies in their daily roast rotation of spotlighting unique coffees. It’s the kind of place where granola people with morning “coffee rituals” go to taste a “clean” pour-over. And if you don’t know what that means, the ones at Cognoscenti are prime examples. You wait over five minutes for the barista to slowly brew your coffee, which is painstakingly long if you don’t care. But if you do, you’ll (hopefully) taste all the fancy flavor notes on the specials chalkboard." - sylvio martins, garrett snyder
"While it’s now recognized as one of the best cafes in the city, Cognoscenti had humble beginnings, starting in 2008 as a pop-up before partnering with Proof Bakery. While Chinese American founder Yeekai Lim previously had a career in architecture, he became obsessed with coffee - from the origins and histories to the complex flavors - after first experiencing it at Intelligentsia. Wanting to try as much coffee as possible, he decided to do a coffee pop-up, and four years later, he opened the first shop in Culver City and later two more locations downtown, designing each of them himself. Last year, Cognoscenti launched an online ordering service and streamlined the delivery process. With more people working from home, Lim said he plans to continue to focus on home coffee brewing and educating homebrewers. And in the future, he also wants to spend more time engaging with producers and optimizing vertical sustainability from farm to shop. Order this: The batch brew - they cycle through different origins throughout the week." - with warm welcome, leslie yeh
"Drawn by Selina Pena, edited by Cognoscenti Coffee, and emphatically endorsed by The Infatuation." - kat hong