Collage Coffee, between Eagle Rock and Highland Park on York Boulevard, is recognizable by its turquoise, Mexico City-style tiles and two doors that are always open.
Collage Coffee opened in 2017 by Kevin Hockin. Collage’s current manager, Michael Szerszunowicz, roasted beans for Hockin before the COVID-19 pandemic when he co-owned a coffee shop, Bicycle Coffee, in Little Tokyo. After he was forced to close his shop, Szerszunowicz said he helped Hockin re-open Collage in November 2020.
“I needed something to do,” Szerszunowicz said. “I just lost my business. I was sitting there and being bummed.”.
Szerszunowicz said Collage gradually opened as COVID-19 declined in intensity.
“We reopened with the little window,” Szerszunowicz said. “We did breakfast burritos and coffee. Then it incrementally went to one door open, COVID got less crazy and then full service again.”
Customers Lillian Doyle and Helen Leahy formerly worked at Collage and Szerszunowicz’s coffee venture in Little Tokyo and Doyle said Collage offered a community space during the pandemic.
“Customers could come to get their coffee, a little dose of humanity, and then go back to their homes,” Doyle said. “It’s just a perfect neighborhood spot, at an intersection of two really big neighborhoods. It’s a nice third space with the outdoor benches, and the people that work here are always super down to earth.”
Leahy said their time at Collage Coffee was a positive environment for baristas and customers.
“It was always a lot of fun, never taking anything too seriously, but making sure that the coffee is good and people are happy,” Leahy said.
Szerszunowicz said he and Collage’s five employees manage the creative elements.
“Everybody has autonomy, ” Szerszunowicz said. “For the seasonal drinks, [one employee] wanted to make a Cavalia syrup. [Another] likes natural coffee, so I always make sure we have a natural coffee.”
According to Szerszunowicz, he manages the roasting program in-house and sources the beans himself. Szerszunowicz said that over the years, he’s developed relationships with his suppliers and farmers involved with harvesting the beans.
“I used to have direct connections with the farms, but I’m waiting for the economy to calm down before I start working with the Guatemalan farmer again,” Szerszunowicz said. “That was my favorite — to work with people who manage crops or have a processing facility. You have this really cool relationship.”
However, Szerszunowicz said some imports are on hold due to the economy as well as the environmental climate.
“Coffee’s really expensive right now because of everything that’s going on politically,” Szerszunowicz said. “There were also a lot of droughts in Brazil and Vietnam. They’re the two biggest producing countries, so if they don’t produce 100 %, there’s way less to go around.”
Collage offers coffee made and prepared fresh, as well as beans to make coffee at home. From the menu, Collage currently sources from Columbia, Ethiopia and Guatemala and has two house blends. Szerszunowicz said he thinks the current customer favorite is the Juanitos blend, which he created from one of the employee’s favorite coffee ingredients and named after him.
Szerszunowicz said he wants Collage to be a place where people in the neighborhood can come for comfort and safety while experiencing the amiability of a small coffee shop.
“[I want Collage to be] somewhere you can bring your mom, and it’s not gonna break your pocket,” Szerszunowicz said. “You nerd out, have a personal experience with people that actually care about what we’re doing.”
The regular customers are an integral part of the Collage Coffee experience, according to Szerszunowicz.
“This lady, Jen, she comes and gets a cold brew with a shot in,” Szerszunowicz said. “Her face is on the cold brew, it’s super connected.”
According to Szerszunowicz, he wanted to avoid the elite attitude that came with some indie coffee shops and for Collage to be a place for everyone in the neighborhood.
“Just come, have a cup and live your life,” Szerszunowicz said.
This story is one in a series about coffee shops around Eagle Rock.
Contact Lucinda Toft at ltoft@oxy.edu
