Rubies + Diamonds Is Hollywood's Coolest New Experimental Coffee Shop

Rubies + Diamonds, a new coffee shop adjacent to Sugarfish Hollywood, is currently soft open in the sparkling mixed use Columbia Square building. The brainchild of owner Jean Shim, who founded the LAMILL retail store in Silver Lake before leaving the company in 2013, and head of brand Arty Tan, Rubies + Diamonds is a coffee house with creativity and innovation at its core, hence the abbreviated name that graces its coffee cups, R+D.

How does R+D translate to coffee and tea? Rubies + Diamonds uses some of the latest brewing technology like nitrogen infusions, where the transparent gas is added to a keg of a particular beverage to yield a foamy, rich effect. Nitro-infusion isn't just for R+D's cold brew coffee, but also its teas. Shim and Tan believe they are the first to do nitro teas in LA, and offer three nitro tea varieties, including nitro creamy matcha tea, and even will throw in a scoop of Mother Moo ice cream for a fun (and highly caffeinated) twist on the ice cream float.

For hot beverages, the coffee shop uses a $14,000 BKON craft brewer, employing reverse atmospheric infusion technology that creates a vacuum to process tea and coffee. The BKON's computer allows the barista to adjust the pressure and extraction rate to optimize the flavors, bringing more subtle tones to the surface. This means the operator is given total control to manipulate steep time, purge time, and the vacuum. Beyond coffee and tea, the BKON allows Rubies + Diamonds to play with infusing water, milk, and even alcohol, giving true meaning to R+D.

To go with your beverage, the Hollywood shop offers a selection of five sandwiches created by Eric Greenspan (Maré) and a selection of thoughtful pastries like a kimchi spam musubi croissant, white miso kougin-amann, and a chocolate chip cookie that comes by way of Shim's 12-year-old daughter. What's more? There's even a curated selection of micro-craft beers and boutique wines.

Of course, the cafe offers free wifi and tons of outlets, officially making Rubies+Diamonds the coolest new place for coffee nerds and freelance writer types alike.