Echo Park's Hipster Coffee Scene Gets Another Boost With Andante Coffee Roasters

Another day, another coffee shop, though this one has a familiar name. Andante Coffee Roasters, the popular Beverly Boulevard third-wave shop that roasts its own beans in Koreatown, has moved into the former Hedgehog space on the corner of Mohawk St. and Sunset.

As first reported yesterday by LA Weekly, has stripped and white-walled the space in just a few weeks, moving in their own bags of hand-roasted coffee and La Marzocco espresso machine.

Echo Park’s coffee scene has seen a sudden spike, with nearby Woodcat Coffee opening just last week. Where Woodcat is a sleek, colorful space that seems more in tune with grabbing a cup of coffee on the way to work, Andante — like their original location — actually wants people to linger. "In a way, it’s part of our decoration," says co-owner Steve Hyun. "We love having people in and building relationships with them." Plenty of outlets and speedy WiFi means he likely won’t have to wait long to start making those neighborhood connections.

All of Andante’s beans are currently still roasted in their commercial space in Koreatown, though there are plans to add a five kilo in-house roaster to the Beverly location. For now, it seems that the new Echo Park location, opened nearly one year to the day from its predecessor, will stay small and focused. Hyun is busy anyway, judging the upcoming regional leg of the U.S. Coffee Competition next week in Rancho Mirage. There are plans to eventually grow into a third location, but with the same slow roll-out as the new Echo Park location. Atwater Village is a possibility, though we likely won’t know until early next year.

Andante Coffee Roasters
2201 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Open Mon. - Sat.: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.