Twitter Bites Back at Conservative Activist For Calling Coffee Bean a “Hipster” Cafe

Conservative activist and always-online Twitter pundit Jacob Wohl has been stirring up controversy on social media for some time, but now a ton of folks are raking him over the coals for his assertion that a Brentwood location of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf constitutes a “hipster coffee shop.” The Los Angeles-based company has more than 1,000 locations in over two dozen countries, and was acquired by a private equity firm in 2013.

The suit-wearing 20-year-old was quickly dragged in his mentions for any number of offenses, among them the notion that Brentwood itself was in any way “hipster,” let alone Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. As a term, “hipster” is usually reserved (often with a heavy dose of snark) as a label for expensive millennial brands with a small corporate footprint, particularly in “cool” neighborhoods filled with young artists and other creative types.

In the post above, Wohl claims to have overheard a gleeful conversation about the Mueller investigation among a group of people. He then followed-up the photo post with a more specific location: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Brentwood. As Wohl himself said, the place is “one of my favorite hipster coffee shops,” though the sentiment is something of a running gag, and at least partly tongue-in-cheek.

The 20-year-old Wohl first rose to some level of prominence on social media in 2016 while vociferously defending then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. The former teenage hedge fund manager (who was investigated for alleged fraudulent activities, but has denied any wrongdoing) found a home and voice at right-wing website The Gateway Pundit, and most recently was behind an ill-conceived accusation of sexual misconduct against acting special counsel Robert Mueller. Vanity Fair describes him as an “alt-right MAGA troll” and NBC has called him a “conspiracy theorist.” President Trump also frequently magnifies his tweets from his own personal account.

This is not the first time that prominent conservative factions have spent time in and around historically liberal Los Angeles. The far-right Proud Boys group has held a collection of meet-ups at bars around the city over the past year, with some of the events escalating into threats, police calls, and boycotts.

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