Local Founder of Brentwoodmeet Calls It a Loss for the Neighborhood
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf location at 11698 San Vicente Blvd. has permanently closed its doors as of March 23, according to a post by Simone Joseph, founder of BrentwoodMeet, on the neighborhood platform Nextdoor.
Joseph, whose community group hosted several events at the café, expressed sadness over the closure and praised the kindness of the staff. Local residents joined in, commenting that the shop was a valued gathering spot and would be missed.
The closure is especially poignant for Brentwood, given the brand’s deep roots in the neighborhood. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was founded in 1963 by Herbert Hyman as a coffee service for offices. After discovering high-quality coffee during a honeymoon trip to Sweden, Hyman and his wife Mona began importing and roasting gourmet beans in Los Angeles.
The company opened its first retail store in Brentwood in 1968, not at the now-closed San Vicente location but at another site in the area. That first shop helped introduce innovations that are still common in the specialty coffee world today, including selling whole beans by country of origin, in-store roasting, and offering customers tastings before purchase.
