Regent Coffee on York Boulevard is nestled within a business center between Avenue 47 and Munson Avenue. Regent’s Eagle Rock location on York Boulevard is an offshoot of its original location in downtown Glendale on Brand Boulevard, according to current employee David Chernyowski.
Leon Nie owns and operates both locations, and according to the website, Regent Coffee is not just a business, but a lifelong project. Nie wrote on the website that the philosophy behind Regent is based on a popularized phrase from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”: “‘Furinkazan’ which means ‘Wind, Forest, Fire, and Mountain.’”
Chernyowski said Nie’s passion for coffee leads him to constant innovation within the business. One of the several innovations Nie has implemented into the business is distilling, according to Chernyowski. Nie entrusted Chernyowski with leading the project because Nie recognized his attention to detail, Chernyowski said. According to Chernyowski, distilling allows for more subtleties of the flavor notes within the brew, specifically because of the lack of high temperature.
“If we’re [making coffee] without the heat, then you’re getting more delicate flavors and more interesting nuance,” Chernyowski said. “It’s a condensate process of condensation. It’s rainwater essentially trapping all the vapor that’s coming off of that. The vapor collects until it forms into heavy droplets, and then that falls into a Fletcher chamber. It’s kind of water, but it has these essences of coffee notes.”
In addition to distilling, Chernyowski also works as a barista and baker for Regent.
“I started off as one of the sourdough bakers in the pandemic, and then I worked at a professional bakery and was the head of the bread department there,” Chernyowski said. “Right now, it’s only cinnamon rolls and lemon [bread] slices, and we just do them on the weekends.”
Chernyowski said Regent Coffee hosts art nights with local artists, serving coffee-inspired mocktails to create outreach and community building. He said the last art night raised funds for the recent Southern California fires. Overall, Chernyowski said the art nights focused on promoting Regent Coffee as a community space and offering artists a place for commission.
“It’s about inviting your friends and bringing more people into the space, more awareness around [Regent Coffee],” Chernyowski said. “We leave the art up here [on the walls of Regent Coffee] because it’s nice. We sell it if people want to buy it, and all the proceeds go directly to the artist to take commission.”
Regent Coffee also features a menu of specialty drinks, according to Chernyowski, stemming from the ideas of Nie, his wife and the employees.
“We all kind of throw in our hat at different points,” Chernyowski said. “Chad [Regent Coffee’s York Boulevard manager] came up with the idea for sugar and spice. He’s from the south, he likes a spicy latte.”
Although the locations on Brand Boulevard and York Boulevard prefer to keep themselves separate to keep a consistent workflow, Chernyowski said certain special components such as the date and chestnut syrups are prepared at the Glendale location and used at both.
“Those two [syrups] were more process-oriented, a heavy process of extracting from Jujubee dates,” Chernyowski said. “Then the chestnuts, we actually have to roast and peel them and grind them down to make the syrup.”
However, Chernyowski said the most popular specialty drink is a quite simple flavor.
“The ice vanilla cappuccino, it’s a customer favorite drink,” Chernyowski said. “It’s not a super frilly drink, but it has an element of being special. We do it in a different way than most places I’ve ever worked at. We do cold foam, and we have a pump like a French press where you’ll pump the milk, creating the nice texture that most people love about it.”
First-time customer Zach Odin, who was visiting from Seattle, said his experience at Regent Coffee was excellent.
“I got an iced doppio,” Odin said. “It’s delicious: a well-balanced extraction. It’s what I would expect from my barista in Seattle.”
On Regent Coffee’s website, they offer knowledge on how to store your coffee and other coffee facts pulled from Nie’s immersion in coffee culture.
Chernyowski said he experiences joy from his three roles at Regent Coffee, grateful to partake in the morning ritual of coffee and breakfast food while surrounded by the environment of passion and innovation.
“We’re always innovating and trying to push the boundaries of what’s current, trending or interesting to us,” Chernyowski said. “We lead with passion. I think anytime you lead with passion, you’re going to come up with some interesting things.”
This story is one in a series about coffee shops around Eagle Rock.
Contact Lucinda Toft at ltoft@oxy.edu
