Tactile Coffee
Permanently Closed
Inventive espresso drinks, biscuits, and house-made focaccia
Inventive espresso drinks, biscuits, and house-made focaccia
"At first glance, Tactile kind of looks like it was created in some sort of Trendy LA Coffee Shop factory, complete with a sleek, minimalistic design, high ceilings, brick walls, and sleep-deprived patrons on laptops. But that’s just about where the generic-ness ends. The cafe, which started as a gourmet coffee truck and is owned and operated by two brothers, has a long list of innovative caffeinated drinks, like the Hibiscus + Espresso Sparkler and the Five-Second Rule, a chilled shot of espresso that, according to the menu, must be consumed within five seconds of being served (although we’ve never stuck around long enough to find out what the punishment is for noncompliance). Plus, in a delicious Bonus Jonas-style surprise, they’re also cranking out some of the best buttermilk biscuits in town. Dense, buttery, and served with a side of either raw honey, agave, or apple-butter, it’s a little unexpected for a cafe in Historic Filipinotown to have such great biscuits, but then again, you probably didn’t expect that a post-credit singing competition would be the best part of the Shrek 2 DVD, either. photo credit: Esther Sun" - Kat Hong
"Tactile itself is a deeply personal business, too. The Yis, who both used to work in catering for Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, are Korean-Americans from Virginia. They serve blackstrap molasses syrup as a nod to their life in the South. Eric, who used to bake on Ludo Lefebvre's LudoBites food truck, makes excellent buttermilk biscuits at Tactile. He can only bake about two dozen at a time because he's using a portable Cadco convection oven. 'I'm familiar with this oven because we use it a lot in catering,' he says. 'It's an electric oven that doesn't need a gas line, which we do not have in this space. It was just something that fit into the space, and we're fortunate enough to find something that's powerful enough that we can use daily. We also bake our house-made focaccia there.' Tactile gets a little busy during my mid-afternoon visit. Eric is behind the counter alone while Mike sits and talks to me. Mike gets up immediately after we're done chatting. 'I'm going to go help,' he says." - Andy Wang
"Tactile Coffee is now up and running down on Beverly." - Farley Elliott
"It’s almost time for Tactile Coffee’s first brick and mortar shop. The former coffee truck is fine tuning the final details at its Rampart Village location, and could be open by the end of the month." - Farley Elliott
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