You don’t need an owl’s invitation to visit L.A.’s latest Harry Potter-themed haven. All you need to do is venture Downtown.
Nimbus Coffee sits just a few blocks from L.A. Live, and the whimsical new café is dishing out lattes, pastries, giggle waters and vegan shakes with all the trappings of a trip into the world of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling series.
Near the door, a woman in a grey Ravenclaw sweatshirt types with the Hogwarts house’s signature studiousness on a laptop. At the tables in back, a group of cloak-clad guests wave wands brought from home. Seated on the purple velvet couch in the corner—the one near the massive hanging portrait of Prince (the placard underneath? “Half Blood Prince”)—there’s a trio wearing replica necklaces of Hermione Granger’s time turner.
As of last week Potterheads have a new home, and it’s highly caffeinated.
Photograph: Stephanie Breijo
Nimbus Coffee opened on June 18, as first reported by Los Angeles Magazine, with croissants, muffins, pound cakes and other assorted sweets to round out a full coffee program. (It’s no Honeydukes at the Wizarding World, but what is?) The coffee bar features beans from L.A.-based Tectonic Roasting Co. as drip coffee, cappuccinos, Americanos, lattes, pour-overs and espresso shots, while the menu of non-alcoholic juice infusions offer something bubbly and bright for those sipping sans caffeine.
These giggle waters are in fact fizzy drinks of house-made fruit compotes, such as the bright-red Watermelon Wesley (we see you, Weasleys), made with cucumber and lemon verbena, and the Blueberry Polyjuice, involving basil and hopefully no shapeshifting à la the namesake potion. Plant-based “mock shakes” involve almond milk, almond butter and cashew in flavors like a PB&J spin made with real strawberries.
This isn’t a sanctioned Harry Potter café, but proprietor (and law-school grad) Eviana Farrar teamed up with her mother, Shawn Farrar, to build out a coffee shop that pays homage without—hopefully—blatantly violating copyright law. We'd hate to ever lose the Nimbus; they’ve certainly imbued hard work and a lot of creativity into the space, a romantic and casual spot dotted with antique books, teapots, hourglasses, and playful portraits of celebrities as Rowling-esque characters (Mariah Carey gets harried, greying hair and a “Mariah Le Strange” plaque, while Morgan Freeman gets the Dumbledore treatment as “Albus Freeman”).
There’s even a wall-size newspaper—The Daily Tea—with “moving” pictures, not to mention a wand-themed photo op lit by a pink-neon “levizzle”; after all, this is a DTLA coffee shop: far too cool for a full “Wingardium Leviosa.”
Take a peek inside the new Nimbus Coffee, below, then hop your own Nimbus and head Downtown to check it out for yourself:
Photograph: Stephanie Breijo
Nimbus coffee is now open Downtown at 1115 S Hope St, from 7am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday, and 8am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.