Coffee Commissary Opens in Burbank

After some four months of renovations and repainting, Coffee Commissary will officially open this weekend in Burbank. Located right on the busy corner of Alameda and Olive avenues (which, if you ever got lost on your way here, channel your inner Liz Lemon and remember that, yes, Olive just turns into Barham), this would be another location for the popular specialty coffee shop that first opened in West Hollywood; an outpost with two nifty service windows opened at Siren Studios earlier this year.

Coffee Commissary's new Burbank space was most recently the home of Peruvian restaurant Choza Mama; sometime in the distant past that is the 1950s, Coffee Commissary owner Tyler King says, the building housed an Orange Julius stand. After peeling back the building's layers and finding all sorts of remnants of its former self — a zigzag roofline, for one — he decided to bring out the original architecture and, with it, its vintage feel.

Coffee Commissary in Burbank; Credit: T. Nguyen

And thus: The shop has a retro-meets-modern look, with that zigzag roofline wrapped in stainless steel, a chevron-decorated floor and various industrial accents. In the back are a nice patio and a parking lot, with plenty of street parking besides.

Inside, coffee, front and center. King says he's simply wants to focus on the “coffee fundamentals” and just make “top-notch coffee” for customers looking for a solid third space to relax. That said, if you obsess over coffee gadgets the way people tend to obsess over episodes of Breaking Bad, you'll note that espresso is pulled off a slick, mustard-yellow La Marzocco machine and brewed coffee is made using the pour-over cones that line the counter.

See also: 10 Best Coffee Shops in Los Angeles

Like the other Coffee Commissary locations, most of the coffee here is from Coava Coffee Roasters and Victrola Coffee Roasters, though you can look forward to trying other coffees as well: King says they “will be speckling our roaster lineup” with coffees from Temple Coffee, Kentucky's Sunergos Coffee and the Bay Area's Chromatic Coffee Company.

As for food to go with that great coffee, well, this was a restaurant once, so the shop has an entire kitchen at its disposal. Accordingly, pastries will be made in-house, with the baked goods delivered fresh to other Coffee Commissary locations every morning. Treats will include quiches, turnovers, chocolate chip cookies and other fun eats.

The shop has been in a soft opening mode over the last week or so and already King says the shop is seeing a terrific cross-section of customers, including construction workers, staff from a nearby hospital and, of course, folks from the neighboring studios. “We are pumped that all walks of L.A. are geared up to try some interesting coffees,” King says.

Coffee Commissary's hours will be from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Coffee Commissary in Burbank; Credit: T. Nguyen

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.