So Sentimental

Pouring SEY — one of the best roasters in the country — out of a borrowed corner of somebody's wine bar is a strange way to run a coffee program, and a more honest one than most soft openings manage. An espresso among the bottles is the whole offer, and the permanent space on East 4th Street is the thing to watch.

• SEY espresso in Long Beach
• Coffee among wine bottles
• Catching a shop before its room
• A Colombian pink bourbon

The coffee is SEY, the New York roaster, currently pouring a Colombian pink bourbon; So Sentimental does not roast, and the founder came up through Stereoscope. Today's menu is espresso-based only — lattes, espressos, Americanos — with no pour-over, V60 or Chemex program, and no retail bags for sale yet.

There is no So Sentimental room yet: the pop-up serves out of Buvons Natural Wine Bar & Shop at 1145 Loma Ave, whose owner offered the space before the East 4th Street build begins in earnest. What you sit in is a natural wine bar, bottles and all — an honest way to run a coffee program before you have walls, with the permanent room the thing to watch.