L.A.'s buzziest coffee shop is in a gorgeous Angelino Heights home. Is this the start of a bigger trend?

"It's 10:54 a.m. Thursday at Granada coffee shop in Angelino Heights, on one of those 73-degree winter mornings in Los Angeles when the sky glows its sunniest cobalt-blue through bare branches. An 11-person-deep line stretches just past the open door. I'm sitting on an L-shaped couch with sturdy burgundy upholstery, taking in the scene while waiting for a cortado. The room beams casual charm - plants, light woods, abstract prints on the wall to add color, a communal table and a toddler-size rocking chair among a couple Eames-style loungers - and couldn't hold many more people. Three women, all with babies in their arms, find seats at a second common table in the backyard garden, joining others who've disappeared into laptop-headphones concentration mode."

"Sydney Wayser and her husband, Isaac Watters, opened Granada in early January. They run it out of the ground-floor section of their house. Their business has become the first breakout sensation in central Los Angeles that's part of the Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) program, introduced as a California Health and Safety Code statute in 2019, designed to legally permit enterprising cooks who want to make food to sell from home, or to create a micro-restaurant in their residence. The state mandate left it to individual counties to approve MEHKO operations, which the L.A. County Board of Supervisors passed in May 2024. Applicants began receiving permits in November 2024, after a process that involved steps any local restaurant would go through, including food safety certification, business licensing and inspection via the L.A. County Department of Public Health."

Granada operates from the ground-floor of a house in Angelino Heights and attracts long morning lines and a varied neighborhood clientele. Owners Sydney Wayser and Isaac Watters opened the coffee shop in early January and run it as a micro-restaurant under California’s Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) statute. L.A. County approved MEHKO in May 2024 and began issuing permits in November 2024 after applicants completed food safety certification, business licensing and public-health inspections. Granada emphasizes casual, homey design and backyard seating, drawing parents, remote workers and local media attention.

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