Dallas loves to sit outside, especially this time of year, when our brief but furious winter gives way to a beautifully breezy and even more brief spring. La La Land Kind Cafe, a new Lowest Greenville coffee shop, is capitalizing on this adoration for patio space with its airy new cafe and plenty of outdoor seating.
La La Land has been getting a ton of press, but not for its design: The cafe employs former foster kids who've aged out of the system and often have a hard time finding work. But despite having a feel-good hook, it doesn't feel gimmicky. Francois Reihani, the cafe's 23-year-old founder, opted to renovate a 100-year-old house just off Greenville Avenue, turning it into a sunlit cafe with bright white walls, modern touches and seating on the front porch and on a sunny back patio.
It's hard to feel cozy and uber-modern at the same time, but La La Land pulls it off. Adding to the coziness is the over-the-top friendly staff. On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, the second day La La Land was open, staff visited tables, giving out free massive chocolate chip cookies and fervently thanking customers.
EXPAND"I just wanna thank you so, so much for supporting us," a server named Katie told me, so earnest in her customer appreciation that I briefly forgot I was at a coffee shop and not volunteering to teach three-legged puppies how to tap dance for the entertainment of down-and-out orphans. There's a lot of optimism in this coffee shop. Luckily, so far, the menu backs up the cheerfulness.
The coffee menu, which you can see below, has all the classics — espresso, pour-overs, flat whites and nitro cold brew — and creative coffee creations that are likely to be very popular among Lowest Greenville's weekend leisure crowd. The Campfire Latte ($5.20) is made with toasted marshmallows, chocolate and graham cracker. A Buddha Latte ($4.70/$5.20) is made with cardamom, and we greatly enjoyed the comfort of the London Fog ($4.70), a perfectly steeped black tea mixed with milk and lavender.
At the moment, the food menu is short and to the sweet but works out just fine. Everything is organic, and you can expect Urban Coffee Shop in 2019 standards like avocado toast ($6.20), breakfast empanadas ($4) and the aforementioned cookie that could easily give four people a sugar fix.
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Less than a block off Greenville and located basically in the parking lot of Trader Joe's, it's easy to see the type of crowd that's going to fall in love with this place, but it's likely they will. With good coffee, trendy menu offerings like matcha and lavender latte and ample sunny seating, both indoor and outdoor, it's poised to be a hit. The cafe's mission — and earnestness — are just the avocado atop the rustic organic toast.
La La Land Kind Cafe, 5626 Bell Ave. (Lowest Greenville) Open 6:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
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