Unurban Coffee House

Parking: Nearby, Street
Cafe / Coffee House

What Disneyland's "It's a Small World" ride is to amusement park attractions, Unurban Coffee House is to local coffee shops--it's quite simply the ground zero of caffeinated cool on the Westside. The interior of the multi-room facility enjoys a level of funkiness previously known only to James Brown, George Clinton, and perhaps Prince: A curio shop with tie-dyed dresses and items like the "Boss Toss," the "Punching Nun" and the "Love Gun" dominate the front room, which also doubles as the ordering station. A variety of coffee and tea drinks and Italian sodas (all at prices well below Starbucks') can be purchased here, along with a small assortment of $5 to $6 sandwiches, salads and soups.
But the best part of the board of fare may be around the corner. In the first adjoining room, a de facto stage hosts live music and other fine entertainments every night of the week, and the setting for the audience is astounding: A pregnant alabaster deity sits atop a shrine covered in dirt; bicycle parts hang from the ceiling, and every manner of art lines the walls--from paintings and sketches to skeletons, fish, silks, beads; even the exposed pipes and electrical conduits take on an artistic hue, painted as they are in garish green. A piano sits against one wall, well removed from the stage as if beckoning the odd customer to sit down and plunk away. It's a nice place to relax over a drink, and if the surroundings aren't enough entertainment, there are several shelves filled with books waiting to be read.

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