Our Story: How Community Goods Started
Community Goods started with a simple idea: a small, takeout-focused café where the drinks are worth slowing down for, even if you're in a hurry. We opened our doors in February 2023 in Hollywood, with a short menu, a Korean café spirit, and a belief that a neighborhood coffee shop should feel like it belongs to the neighborhood — not the other way around.
It Started with Matcha and a Cream Top
From the beginning, we wanted to do something different from the standard third-wave playbook. Our head barista, Brandon Cho, brought with him the café culture of Korea — where drinks are layered, textured, and a little bit theatrical, and where a cream top isn't a garnish but the whole point. That's where our signature came from: the Matcha Einspänner, ceremonial-grade matcha under a thick pour of lightly sweetened cream, drank through the cream, never stirred.
We didn't set out to go viral. We set out to make the drinks we actually wanted to drink. But the Einspänner had other plans — people started lining up, phones came out, and somewhere along the way our little takeout window became a destination. The line was never the goal, though. The goal was always the person at the front of it.
Two Neighborhoods, One Shop
Hollywood came first — our shop at 710 N Edinburgh Ave, a small space built for the rhythm of the neighborhood: quick in the morning, lingering in the afternoon. Then came Melrose. Our second location at 8687 Melrose Ave in West Hollywood brought the same menu and the same idea to a street that already understood café culture, and it fit right in.
Both shops run on the same philosophy. Small footprint, focused menu, everything made to order. We'd rather do ten drinks exceptionally well than fifty drinks adequately. Matcha, espresso, cream tops — that's the core, and we take it seriously.
Why We Keep It Small
People ask us sometimes when we're going to expand — more locations, bigger spaces, a seating area with outlets. The honest answer is that the smallness is the point. A takeout window forces focus: there's no hiding a mediocre drink behind ambiance. Every cup has to stand on its own, because the customer is taking it straight out into the world.
It also keeps us close to the people we're serving. In a big café you can disappear into the crowd; at a small counter, you're part of the flow. You see the same faces at 8 a.m., you learn the order patterns of the block, you become a fixture in people's days. That's what a neighborhood café is supposed to be — not a pit stop, but a landmark.
The Kind of Shop We Want to Be
Somewhere along the way, we got to make a drink with Hailey Bieber for Rhode — one of those moments that reminds you how far a small café can reach when it stays true to what it does. It was a highlight, genuinely. But the moments that matter more to us are the ordinary ones: the regular who doesn't have to order anymore, the first-timer who came because of a video and stayed because of the drink, the barista who remembers how you take it.
A neighborhood café is a strange and wonderful thing. It's a business, sure, but it's also a daily ritual for hundreds of people you'll never fully know. You learn their orders before their names. You notice when someone's having a rough week. You make the drink a little extra carefully on the days it seems like they need it. That's the job, as far as we're concerned — not just the coffee part, but the community part. It's in the name, after all.
We're still small. We're still takeout-focused. We still whisk every matcha to order and pour every cream top by hand. If you've been coming since the Hollywood days, thank you — you built this. If you just found us, welcome. There's a spot in the line with your name on it.
Come say hi. We're at 8687 Melrose Ave in West Hollywood and 710 N Edinburgh Ave in Hollywood — and we'd really love to make you something.