Standing up

For years Primera Taza Coffee House has stood as a great example of what it means for coffee and community to come together in Boyle Heights. Owners Chuy Tovar and Rosalinda Hernandez have run the ten-year-old shop since 2015, but are now in danger of losing their lease in the rapidly-changing neighborhood. According to their own Instagram post, the place may have as little as ten days left before big changes start to happen.

Unlike Weird Wave Coffee down the street, which garnered a lot of early attention for its perceived gentrification, Primera Taza has worked hard to maintain its status as a friendly community hangout, a place for sandwiches and Mexican roasted beans, and quality conversation. In recent months the plan has even been to move the coffee shop towards a 100% employee-owned model, but now that could be in jeopardy as soon as next month. More on this as it comes.

Kali collabs again

Another month, another Kali collaboration dinner. This time the plan is to expand the reach to the Valley, with chefs Antonia Lofaso, Ted Hopson, and Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee cooking up a five-course affair for $95 on April 10.

Genghis Cohen comes alive

There’s a cannabis-infused party going down at Genghis Cohen on March 27, and it’s called (appropriately enough) Ganja Cohen. Expect a four-course dinner from Luke Reyes’ La Hoja events company, plus live comedy.

Pastry to watch

LA Magazine is up on all the best pastry chefs to follow along with on Instagram these days, from Nicole Rucker to Roxana Jullapat.

Raffi for the win

LA Times has a great feature out on the Raffi’s Place family this week. The mega-popular Persian restaurant is celebrating 25 years in Glendale.

A Sumo Dog special

Jeremy Fall of Tinfoil and the upcoming Easy’s has a new collaboration hot dog with Sumo Dog. It’s a bacon-wrapped pork sausage with sambal-sesame salsa (say that three times fast), pickled papaya, and furikake in a potato roll. It costs $9 at the K-Town restaurant and runs until March 25.