Customer Juliette Davis said Café de Leche reminds her of the cafes in her home country of France. She said she likes coming to the cafe with her friends because it is a neutral meeting spot.
Matthew Schodorf, the co-founder of Café de Leche, said he and his wife Anya founded the cafe in 2008 because of their shared love for coffee, a side hustle on top of both working in the entertainment industry.
“A lot of people kind of have that dream: ‘what if we have a little spot’?” Schodorf said.
However, Schodorf said the 2008 financial crisis took their day jobs away.
“All we [had] left was this coffee shop that was supposed to be a side project,” Schodorf said. “We went all in on it — more or less out of necessity — and then it became our lives. We’ve been working on it ever since.”
Schodorf said the joy in running a small coffee shop was the flexible schedule that allowed him and his wife to spend time with their kids as they grew up.
“I am going to work extra hard now so I can go see my kids’ school play, or I can go be there on parent’s night, or I can go watch the soccer game,” Schodorf said. “My wife and I were able to go to our kids’ activities growing up. We were able to schedule that, and that was really important to us.”
However, Schodorf said the main challenge of owning a business was that he had to take sole responsibility for every mistake and roadblock that happened along the way. Schodorf said that everything was a learning process at the start.
“The downside is it’s all on you. If it doesn’t work, it’s nobody else’s fault. It’s a hundred percent me,” Schodorf said. “You don’t get an option to go, ‘Why [doesn’t] this person take care of this?’” Schodorf said.
Schodorf said he hopes to rebuild the Altadena location that burned down in the Eaton fire in January. Café de Leche’s supervisor Harvy Reyes said he could clearly remember the day that the fire happened.
“It was very devastating.” Reyes said. “We could not imagine it happening to our store. It was like our home. A lot of people in the Altadena community found that place as home. It was like our sanctuary.”
Barista Ethan Henley said that when Café de Leche’s Altadena location burned down, all the employees had the opportunity to work for the company at the Highland Park location. Henley, an employee at the Altadena location, said he loved working at the location and is sure it will be rebuilt.
“It was very sad to see that store burned down due to the fire, but we’re still powering forward doing everything we can,” Henley said.
A Café de Leche regular Wade Thoren said he would stop by Café De Leche nearly every day.
“My daughter’s 7, and I’ve been bringing her over since she was just months old to learn to walk in the park across the street,” Thoren said.
Thoren said the blueberry muffins at the cafe act as a perfect compromise when his kids argue about what treats they want.
“I’m like, ‘Look, I’m getting a blueberry muffin and we’re splitting it.’ They shut their mouths,” Thoren said.
Thoren said Café de Leche’s involvement in the community kept him coming to the store. During the fires in January, many places in the neighborhood lost power, so people would come to Café de Leche, including Thoren himself. Thoren said the situation felt terrifying, and the cafe was able to serve as a meeting spot for the community to gather.
“People don’t open up to each other a whole lot, but when there is a tragedy happening, we open up a bit more quickly,” Thoren said.
Barista Miraya Sweetman said she moved from the Bay Area to Highland Park and started working at Café de Leche about a year ago. Sweetman said she was not directly affected by the fires but sympathized with those who were.
“It’s just so sad to hear many people lose everything,” Sweetman said. “If we can accommodate everyone with their favorite drinks, the familiar flavor for them or just a place for them to go again, I’m glad to service that.”
Reyes said the cafe is involved in the community and has donated to people affected by the fires.
“We’re always doing donations. We’re always involved,” Reyes said. “Matt and Anya are always involved […] I’m always here helping with the donations to make sure that everything that we’re doing comes to life.”
According to Schodorf, people have reached out wanting to buy from the cafe in order to make up for lost income from the Altadena store burning down.
“It’s just been wonderful,” Schodorf said. “It’s been really, really nice. A silver lining of a very difficult time has been the love and support we got from the community.”
Contact Villathina Ly at lyv@oxy.edu.
