Caspian Coast Coffee

Every surface here is doing the same work: two twelve-foot Parisa Parnian murals over a custom two-tone terracotta banquette along the window wall, a bespoke 'Caspian Gothic' typeface, a nazar on the boards and the merch. The coffee is the thinner half (Sightglass roasted a few miles away, one drip item that is a blend, no manual brew, no beans for sale), and the invention goes into the specialty drinks instead, saffron and salted pistachio doing the work an origin sheet does elsewhere.

The espresso is Sightglass, roasted in Los Angeles, and the shop calls itself the roaster's only home on Main Street, but the origin detail stops there: the single drip item is a daily batch brew of a Sightglass Toketee or seasonal blend, with no pour-over, V60, Chemex, or single-origin language anywhere. There are no retail beans either: the shop page sells four products, all of them merch.

Rahi Manavi, trained as an architect, built this small split-level room as a memory palace for a country he has never been able to visit: two roughly twelve-foot murals by Iranian-American artist Parisa Parnian, one a sofreh spread with a paisley surfboard and “Woman, Life, Freedom,” the other a pop-art Peykan under bilingual “Lös Ángeles.” Custom two-tone terracotta tile runs the built-in banquettes along the window wall, and the loft above holds backgammon, chess, Hafez, and a turntable the shop sometimes hands to a DJ.