Dayglow Coffee, CA

Hello Fellow Coffee Nomads,

Writing from my new-and-improved home office since this quarantine madness has begun. Since I have been furloughed from my salaried job, I am left to a lot of reflecting on the adventures I have been so fortunate to experience and the on the spaces and places that brought me joy.

With some creative juices flowin’, coupled with the rare gift of time (too much time!), I now give you:

Dayglow Coffee

I didn’t plan on visiting Dayglow, but rather to visit my dear childhood friend (who is now an LA Stylist for the stars) who had moved to the Silverlake neighborhood. (She also didn’t know she’d be my coffee model for the day — good thing she’s naturally stylish any day of the week.). But of course, whenever exploring a new area, I can’t help but coffee shop hop and drag any friend willing.

I want to first talk about Silverlake because it would be wasteful to visit this coffee shop and not explore what is just around the corner.

Silverlake is a vibrant, artistic and creative community. It’s beautiful backdrop is true to its California hilly charm it also has, evidently, a lake. As we drove towards Silverlake we passed Echo Park Lake (just Southeast of Silverlake) I saw a dreamlike scene as couples enjoyed paddle boats and swan boats alike on a beautiful 75 and sunny day. As we climbed further up a windy, steep hill into my friends neighborhood - higher and further from the busy Sunset Blvd. - there was a sense of peace and calm.

Of course this Sunset Blvd is not the same that winds through Beverly Hills and meets up with Rodeo drive with flashy, high-end luxury storefronts. As it stretches East it transforms into an entirely different personality: It’s looks more rugged, lined with colorful artisanal coffee shops, vegan cafés and creative yet traditional Asian eating gems and it sounds like indie music streaming from a lived-in venue and dogs barking greetings to other fur friends at the dog park.

Take a walk down this Sunset Blvd and pop into a plant nursery, the Plant Provocateur, and get lost in beautiful pots and unique plants. Work up an appetite and drop into Ramen Bangaichi (which my friend and her boyfriend took me to) and order Dandan noodles that will soothe the soul.

Before beginning any exploring of any neighborhood, of course, all adventures must first begin with — coffee.

Enter Dayglow Coffee

Walking into Dayglow is a refreshingly, striking, and welcoming experience. It reflects the California desert with warm earthy tones and all brightened with clean, white yet textured backdrops and other corners and entryways highlighted with Spanish tiles. But the common thread that pulls everything together is the pink hues subtly placed in the table legs, shelving and framing of the archway and lastly but poignantly - their rose-colored cortado glasses (my favorite kind).

About the Coffee

Dayglow coffee is a gem to us coffee connoisseurs because while it offers American specialty roasters (creme of the crop kind of stuff like Little Wolf from Massachusetts) it’s also a link to star international roasters that would be otherwise very difficult or expensive to obtain. A few include Talormade from Oslo, Morgon Roasters from Sweden, Nomad Coffee Roasters from Barcelona, La Carba from Denmark. You can view their rotating listings and offerings here or check out their stocklist on their Instagram Story Highlight.

With so many fabulous coffees to try from roasters all over the world, Dayglow is the place to skip the vanilla latté if you please and try your hand at a filter coffee or espresso or cortado to really appreciate how damn good this coffee is at pure form.

BONUS - enjoy these international coffees at home

What also separates Dayglow from other multi-roasters (or cafés that showcase multiple roasters) is that they offer an online subscription service as well. They’d been offering this service long before COVID struck and have been able to bring these international roasters to your doorstep. Seeing these coffees have quite the journey (mainly over the Atlantic to make) you can bet these will be higher priced but for the coffee explorer wanting to widen their taste and get exposed to different roasting profiles, it’s well worth it.