Photo credit: Maia Kim

A long line of people wait outside Community Goods, a popular café in West Hollywood. On weekends, wait times can stretch over an hour.

When most people think of Los Angeles, images of celebrities and Instagram post-worthy spots come to mind. While there is a high concentration of both of these things in our city, I’ve noticed there’s an even larger population of well-known cafés. In recent years, Community Goods has been the café that constantly comes up in online conversation. I’ve seen countless social media posts displaying its beautiful drinks and pastries basking in the California sun.

Tucked away in a neighborhood off of Melrose Avenue is the original Community Goods location at 710 North Edinburgh Avenue. It is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. A location recently opened at the Pacific Design Center on Melrose Avenue, and it is rumored there will soon be a new location in Brentwood on San Vicente Boulevard. 

Every time I’ve driven by the café, I’ve rolled my eyes at the long line of foolish people who would waste their time waiting to purchase another overpriced coffee. Alas, I decided it was finally my turn to join those fools. 

When I arrived at the café, the line stretched to the corner of the street, so I knew I would be there for a while. Visitors and locals alike waited in the sun, and most people had their phones out taking pictures. A woman behind me even stepped out of line to pose with the building, and others who had already received their orders were carefully staging their items before clicking away with their cameras. 

The interior of the cafe has a homey feeling with wood accents and lo-fi music playing over the speakers. Unfortunately, the immaculate Japandi vibe is spoiled by the large hordes of people waiting inside and the baristas attempting to shout names over the chaos. 

After waiting one hour and six minutes, I finally made it to the register. They offer a standard variety of drinks (coffee, matcha and chai) with unique twists along with some breakfast and lunch foods. I decided to order some of the most popular items — or in other words, the foods and drinks I’d seen the most on social media. Four things came out to be $42.81 including tax and tip, and after ordering, receiving my items took another 14 minutes. 

To start, the Einspänner Latte, starting at a whopping $7, was delicious. It was an iced latte with sweetened cream, sea salt, cocoa powder and double espresso. The latte was super frothy and sweet with some fruity notes, but it was more similar to a Frappuccino than any other coffee drink. If you’re someone who only goes for black coffee, I would not recommend this drink. But for me, an avid tea drinker, it was enjoyable.  

The Spänner Matcha was even better, and it was $7 just like the other latte. It contained the same sweetened cream and sea salt but had shots of matcha instead of espresso. It was very creamy and tasted pre-sweetened, but it lacked the grassy flavor and depth that’s traditionally found in matcha-based drinks. The matcha flavor was likely overpowered by the sweetened cream, but that can be a positive or negative depending on how you like your matcha lattes. Although it tasted good, I prefer a stronger matcha flavor. 

For food, I got the $9 pistachio toast, which was tasty with a chewy crunchy crust and a soft sourdough interior. It was topped with the perfect amount of pistachio spread, a drizzle of honey and olive oil and a sprinkle of pistachio pieces. It’s a great choice if you’re craving something sweet, but for me, it was a bit too sugary. I would not buy the toast again if I were to go back.

My final pick was the breakfast sliders with bacon, which were $10 plus an added $2 for the bacon. They come with fluffy scrambled eggs and American cheese on classic Hawaiian rolls. There are also two sauces on the side, one sweet and spicy, and one mayonnaise-like and tangy. There were four sliders, and they were quite good — a filling breakfast that I would purchase again. 

Before I tried these so-called “goods,” I was appalled at the fact that I waited more than an hour for a couple of drinks and breakfast items, but I hate to admit it was almost worth it. I wouldn’t drive another 20 minutes exclusively to wait in line again, but if I were already in the area to shop or catch up with friends, I wouldn’t mind making the extra stop.

Though the price points are high and the café was the busiest place on the street, their food and drinks are high quality and tasty. The moral of the story is that all the social media hype is true. Community Goods is worth trying at least once in your life.