Leimert Park is home to two Black-owned coffee shops that offer comfort, and great menus with high quality healthy, whole foods and various matcha latte flavors a 13 minute drive away.
Ora Urban Cafe, owned by Tina Amin and Tony Jolly since 2018, was called Hot and Cool Café until early 2024. The space is great for studying and hosts events like open mic nights, comedy shows, R&B day parties, and game nights. Tina and Tony focus on using ethically-sourced, hand-roasted coffee and fresh, whole ingredients to make food that supports your body and well-being. Their matcha comes in several drinks, including vegan matcha mango shakes, matcha lemonade, and today’s trending drink, matcha lattes.
Besides the regular latte, they offer six matcha flavors: peaches & cream, strawberry, pistachio, lavender, raspberry, and vanilla. The basic matcha and lavender lattes start at $5.50, while the other flavors are $6. The vegan shake is $9, and the matcha lemonade starts at $6 for a 12 oz. cup.
The cafe asks guests to keep their visits to 90 minutes or less, encouraging you to enjoy the space and stay present rather than get lost on your phone. The lighting is warm and cozy, with orb-shaped lights, and the playlist features jazz and 80s music like ‘Gypsy’ by Fleetwood Mac, ‘Love Song’ by The Cure, and ‘Purple Rain’ by Prince. During my visit on President’s Day, raindrops tapped the windows in time with the music, while natural light from the sunroofs brightened the plants in the bench seating area.
For February, the cafe has a special Valentine’s Month menu. It features four items: the Berry In Love Smoothie, Salt Bae Cold Brew, Chocolate Honey Bear, and Love Me Matcha.
I tried the Love Me Matcha for $9.50. It’s made with strawberry matcha, raspberry cloud, fresh strawberry puree, and your choice of milk. I chose oat milk.
The drink was smooth, not too sweet, and well-balanced. The strawberry matcha and puree stood out, without the heavy syrups you find at some coffee shops, and there was a small piece of strawberry in every sip. As the raspberry cold foam melted in, it added a bold, light flavor that made it feel like I was eating fresh raspberries and strawberries, not just drinking a matcha latte. The matcha was silky and not too sweet, letting the fruit flavors shine and making it a memorable treat for Valentine’s Day weekend.
Even if the Valentine’s menu is gone by the time you visit, there are still plenty of flavors to try. The Peaches & Cream matcha is a fan favorite at $6, and if it’s still February, the Love Me Matcha is especially popular.
Harun Coffee is right across the street. It reopened in Leimert Park on January 9. The cafe first opened in 2019, started by Chace Johnson, also known as “Chace Infinite,” who manages A$AP Rocky. Harun Coffee had to close in 2023 because of challenges and slow business during COVID-19. Thanks to a partnership with Community Labs, it was able to reopen. Community Labs, founded by Prophet Walker and Cheron Hall, invests in local, BIPOC-owned small businesses in Los Angeles, especially in Leimert Park, where they see a lot of potential.
Harun Coffee 2.0 highlights African coffee traditions, with beans from Ethiopia to honor coffee’s roots. They also use beans from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Togo, and draw inspiration from coffee culture in Morocco and Egypt, where it’s consumed in the evening as a time for conscious gathering.
Upon entering, I was met with a small, yellow room with no background music, with the only sounds the clicking and clacking of drinks being poured and the chatter of fellow patrons at the two tables. I was automatically greeted by the barista, who also doubled as a cashier, and I read the only visible menu in the cafe, two clipboards on the counter with drink options on the left and food options on the right.
Since the cafe focuses mainly on coffee, there is only one matcha option: Ceremonial Matcha at $10. They have syrup additions that can be added to matcha or other drinks; those syrups are simple, vanilla, spiced, and chocolate, for an additional dollar. When it comes to their matcha, their vanilla addition is very popular, so I decided to try the Ceremonial Matcha with Vanilla Syrup.
When my matcha was ready, a server brought it out on an oval wooden tray, served in a glass cup with a metal straw that had a spoon on the end for stirring. Looking around, I felt a bit stressed about finding a seat since both tables were taken. Then, the server and barista let me in on a secret: there was another room hidden behind an indented wall with a Harun Coffee shirt.
The wall opened to reveal another room, up one step, with maroon velvet walls, a burgundy rug, and couches of varying heights and fabrics, each with a coffee table. This room had something the first one didn’t: music. Large speakers in the top corner of the wall played jazz and 90s hip-hop, mostly De La Soul, while I was there.
There’s no time limit for these seats, so you can settle in for a long study session or take breaks as you need. The ceremonial grade matcha tasted smooth and creamy, with a mild, vegetal flavor and just a hint of bitterness.
Although the cafe focuses on coffee, the barista making my matcha explained the different names for matcha sizes and styles, much like coffee drinks such as cappuccinos and lattes. Koicha is a small, espresso-sized shot of matcha, traditionally made in a kettle. Usucha is similar to an Americano, with matcha and water, but no milk, as it is traditionally enjoyed in Japan. Like coffee, matcha’s flavor profile can change significantly depending on its elevation, location, and origin. At Harun Coffee, their Ceremonial Matcha Latte uses Hukuju Matcha, a premium everyday matcha with nutty, chocolatey aromatics and flavor notes of chestnut and pistachio, all without containing nuts.
Matcha is a culturally significant drink in Japan, served in the Japanese tea ceremony, chanoyu, for centuries. Matcha has experienced a massive surge in popularity in the United States among the health-conscious Gen Z, who want a sustained energy source containing health benefits. Matcha is a type of green tea and is known as a “superfood” for its health benefits, including its rich in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties, and its ability to improve brain function while providing a calm, focused energy boost.
Overall, I had a great time and would 100% recommend everyone to go try these locations. Both locations offer a variety of programming and food options alongside their coffee menus, including film screenings, social gatherings, and hosting. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at both Harun Coffee and Ora, enjoying their comfortable seating areas that let me focus on my work outside of the USC bubble.