Congratulations, if you position yourself just right, you can sit in an outdoor patio chair, throw hard scones and hit three coffee houses in North Laguna.
With the recent opening of Endless Quest Roasters in the Boat Canyon Shopping Center, there are literally three places to drink coffee within 100 feet of each other: Starbucks in Pavilions, Blk Dot Coffee and Endless Quest.
But wait, there’s also Jedidiah Coffee, MoonGoat Coffee and Urth Caffe. Just over half a mile between all of them. So it’s no longer North Laguna, it’s Colombia North.
Welcome to Laguna Beach’s hands-off business policy – except for when it comes to downtown proper. There, you can’t have such similar businesses located next to each other, but outside the arbitrary boundary, bring on the competition.
Never mind that residents don’t want six coffee houses practically on the same block.
Nonetheless, here we are, so rather than fight it, we volunteered to enjoy and judge the new cartel landscape.
First is Starbucks. It’s a Starbucks. It doesn’t even have to try anymore. Moving on.
Newcomer Endless Quest is perhaps trying a little too hard, but it seems sincere. Remember Jack Nicholson in “The Bucket List,” extolling the virtues of kopi luwak coffee? That’s Endless Quest.
You can order small batches of complicated, expensive and sustainably sourced beans from all over the world.
Just to reinforce the level of coffee purism here, this is how they describe their mission in life: “Our QUEST is to source the world’s finest and most unique specialty coffee beans. Through meticulous small-batch roasting, the full potential of each origin’s flavor profile is created. The seasonal nature of coffee cherries, varied geography and ever-changing climate, make our journey ENDLESS.”
In that spirit, we tried a straight espresso from the organic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe G2 beans. It was … different. Not bad, just sort of earthy and tart. According to the little card we got with the cup, the flavor profile included: “green apple, pear, hibiscus, blueberries.”
So, yes, a lot going on.
They only have the Laguna store open right now, with aspirations for others in Costa Mesa and Corte Madera, of all places, according to their website.
While they specialize in beans, they serve some fairly standard – yet dense – coffee drinks, along with a small assortment of muffins and such.
The atmosphere is spartan, as so many coffee places are nowadays (RIP Koffee Klatch). Unfortunately, industrial chic is here to stay, it seems.
From there we took a few steps to Blk Dot Coffee.
Imagine if Starbucks had a cool granddaughter – from Vietnam. That’s Blk Dot Coffee.
There’s young people, music, and a cult-like appreciation for their coffee concoctions. This is a bigger operation. They first started in 2015 and now have 10 locations, primarily in Orange County, but also a couple in L.A. County.
Their claim to fame is definitely the Vietnamese spin on traditional coffee.
And spin they do.
Their signature slow-drip coffee is sweetened, blended, infused and dolloped with things you never imagined.
The Hot Spicy Honey Oat Latte, for example, is their “house-special oat milk latte infused with a blend of honey, chili-infused honey, and cinnamon.”
Not to be outdone, our favorite – only because it has “mojito” in the name – is the Mojito Cold Brew Einspanner. It’s a cold brew with mojito syrup, cane syrup, mint leaves, sweet foam top, and cocoa powder.
We had two of those before lunch but could still drive home safely.
None of these places are cheap, by the way. The mojitos were $7.95 each (but alas, did not include rum).
And there’s more. We said Colombia North for a reason.
Just about a quarter mile away from Coffee’s Holy Trinity is the newly opened Jedidiah Coffee, 397 N. Coast Hwy. Then there’s MoonGoat Coffee that opened less than a year ago at 908 N. Coast Hwy.
We did not include those two in this review because, frankly, we’re kind of coffeed out and seriously jittery.
Of course, there’s also Urth Caffe, which includes a very reputable and tasty coffee business.
Remember, this is just North Laguna. There are other coffee houses opening in other parts of the city, such as Rapport across from Montage.
So much coffee.
There you have it. Another weird example of Laguna. It makes no sense but what can you do?
Except drink.
