The Best: Amazing sandwiches and good place to hang out. Might Not Like: Parking is limited and it gets busy during the lunch hour…because it’s so good.
Great coffee shops with great food are hard to come by, but Habitat puts these two things together with aplomb. Whether you need to be caffeinated or well fed, Habitat can make that happen. While the vibe is definitely urban basement loft and worker bee crossed with young actor and producer and a little bit of working mom thrown in, the space is a delightful place to spend an afternoon eating, drinking, working, and people watching.
The coffee is great and while tea menus are often an afterthought, at Habitat the drink of our previous monarchy gets an entire board of choices, which is much appreciated for those afternoons when you’ve hit your caffeine limit.
Food at Habitat consists of three beautiful cases of sandwiches and salads made in-house. The sandwiches and salads are not only huge and amazing, but the selection changes daily so you never get bored. There are also delicious quiches, awesome cookies from Sustina Bakery and plenty of other organic and paleo snacks.
I’m an east coast girl. There is little that I love more than a sandwich, and the ones at Habitat stack up. They are tall and the bread is crunchy and the meat is layered in pretty little rows that are almost hypnotic. With each bite, the juicy, crunchy, tasty combo conjures up the intensity of the Princess Bride when Mad Max and his crazy eyes are passionately describing the MLT where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe.
But even if meat is not your jam, they have vegetarian options like the cauliflower melt, made with the same attention to size and grandeur and deliciousness. And even though the sandwiches are chosen out of a case, they will happily heat anything that you ask and bring it out to you on a plate where you can devour its crunchy goodness while you get those next lines of your script down on the screen or finish listening to the last few minutes of your favorite podcast.
Not to be outdone by the sandwiches, the salads at Habitat are served loaded with all sorts of veggies and toppings and then mixed together in large metal mixing bowls so that you are not having to chase your lettuce as it inadvertently tries to escape over the top of an overly full bowl.
While the whole shop has a touch of Mad Max mixed with a little too much concrete feel, the tall, industrial ceilings of the shop are warmed up a little by the charming green and black tiles that line the counter, a much larger than life picture of stunning raccoons against a pale green sky, and a friendly staff. Although dressed in black and channeling a little bit of a hip mourning vibe, over time this crew has proven to be both a quite friendly and a whole lot of efficient in true coffee shop style.
If you’re hungry, thirsty, or just want a great place to hang in Glassel Park, there is no doubt that Habitat is a perfect place to do all three.
Hip and Trendy: Yes and Yes.
Cheap and Spendy: Dare I say, cheap as in great value. Not something you hear in LA much these days, but it’s true.
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