Be Bright Coffee
Curator’s note
Frank La won the 2024 US Barista Championship out of this shop, Christian Bak took second at the 2025 US Brewers Cup for it, and a 2021 US Cold Brew title sits behind both. The bags then leave origin off the label on purpose while the product pages track a lot's carbonic maceration hour by hour: casual packaging, obsessive paperwork.
A house-made caramel latte finished with cold foam.
Whipped avocado ricotta on black sesame loaf, with everything seasoning, fermented black garlic, micro citrus, lemon zest, and Maldon salt.
The coffee
Be Bright roasts its own label weekly on a Loring S35 in a shared downtown LA facility, and the single-origin shelf runs from a $21 Honduras up to a $43 Colombian Wush Wush whose carbonic maceration is documented to the hour on its product page.
- Brazil Rio Brilhante Fosforico
- Arara, Paraiso
- Dried on patios for five days, finished in mechanical dryers for four more, then rested 40 days before dry milling.
- Fazenda Rio Brilhante
cacao nibs · hazelnut · toasted marshmallow · cherry cola
- City on a Hill Blend
- Dark
molasses · dark chocolate · roasted peanuts
- Colombia Finca Milan Nitro Caturra
- Caturra
- Nitro washed: embryonic stress fermentation, depulping, then sealed bioreactor fermentation with nitrogen and watermelon over four to six days.
- Finca Milán (Café UBA)
watermelon · kiwi · cantaloupe · caramel
- El Salvador Nelson Flores
- Pacamara, Bourbon, Catuai
- Hand-picked and rested overnight, pulped the next morning, fermented in cherry then in mucilage, washed and dried on raised beds about 15 days.
- Finca Las Mercedes
pineapple · red grape candy · navel orange
- Guatemala Las Moritas Pacamara
- Red bourbon, Yellow bourbon, Pache, Pacamara, Castillo, Typica, Catuaí, Caturra
- Las Moritas
blackcurrant · grapefruit soda · red berries · gooseberry
- Honduras David Lopez
nougat · golden raisin · baked apple · cocoa powder
- Vivid Espresso
chocolate · burnt sugar · warm fruitiness
- Kaleidoscope Breakfast Blend
citrus · apricot jam · caramel
The room
The Melrose room is color-managed like a print run: terrazzo counter, light birch shelving, and interior colors matched precisely to the bags on the shelf and the brand online. One corner is a kids' play area, and that choice says who Frank and Michelle La built the room for.
The vibe
Photos
People
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