LAReview
photo credit: Holly Liss
Paramount Coffee Project
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Included In
It’s safe to say that the true center of Friends wasn’t the whole Ross and Rachel thing, or Monica and Chandler, or even all those times that Joey ate things. The real thing at the heart of the sitcom we watched throughout childhood (and again on DVD in college dorms, and again in late-night Netflix binges) was Central Perk. Like clockwork, the whole gang would show up to hang out on that big couch, sip giant cappuccinos, and probably listen to Phoebe sing “Smelly Cat”.
Walk into a coffee shop in LA and this is not the scene you’ll be greeted with. Instead, you’ll find an army of laptops and humans wearing headphones, putting together the business plan for their wellness app or working on a script they swear Scorsese told them was “a great idea.” There might be a few people actually speaking to other people, but they’re probably there for a meeting anyway. The coffee shop as hangout spot - not second office - is virtually extinct in this town. But Paramount Coffee Project on Fairfax is one of the few exceptions.
photo credit: Holly Liss
Paramount is the second cafe from a bunch of Australians who know their way around caffeinated beverages (the first is in Sydney). They’ve brought a very Aussie version of the coffee shop - a daytime place for great coffee, great food, great hangs, and no work - to LA. So instead of lining up to place your order before hanging around awkwardly to wait for your coffee, they do full table service, as well as a full menu of breakfast and lunch offerings that are available all day. Sure, there’s no massive couch (just a bunch of small-ish tables and a cute patio out the back), but you’d also feel kind of weird pulling out your laptop here.
So if you can’t work, what should you be doing? Eating. There are standard breakfast things - avocado toast, shakshuka, soft scrambled eggs - but also some more creative options, like burrata on toast and, in a nod to their roots, a vegemite butterscotch milkshake. Whatever you choose, everything looks and tastes like it comes from a much fancier restaurant. Make sure you order a coffee too - the flat whites here are some of the best in the city.
Don’t show up to Paramount Coffee Project with your laptop in hand and expect to be there all day writing that pitch you just know Bravo is going to love. That’s not their style. Go for a hang and to eat some excellent food and maybe, if you’re lucky, Joey will be there too.