Stumptown’s New LA Flagship Gives The Starland Theatre an Encore

The entry to the new Stumptown Coffee Roasters cafe and training center in the former Starland Theatre in Los Angeles. All images courtesy of Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

The curtain has risen on a new era at a historic former neighborhood movie theater in Los Angeles, where Stumptown Coffee Roasters opened a new flagship cafe and regional training center on Aug. 29.

Occupying the surviving front portion of the former Starland Theatre in Lincoln Heights, the cafe blends Stumptown’s Portland, Oregon-born aesthetic with preserved elements of the historic building.

Opened in 1913 as a Globe Theatre No. 7, designed by architect George B. Campbell, the building retains its relief facade, large arched entrance and terrazzo tile at the entry, where a new generation of guests is welcomed. 

“We were immediately drawn to those details and wanted the new cafe to preserve their presence rather than obscure them,” Stumptown Director of Retail Julianne Pike told Daily Coffee News. “We wanted the cafe to feel bright, airy and warm, with a balance of historic architectural details and contemporary elements that make the space feel inviting and lived-in.”

Custom stereo speakers, benches and other elements were designed by Jon and Masa Kleinhample of Klein Agency, which also helped shape the cafe’s palette of warm colors and natural materials. Wood and exposed original brick add texture, while large front windows, preserved architectural details and original tile carry through the building’s history.

“We wanted the space to feel like it belongs to both Stumptown and Lincoln Heights: warm, approachable and full of character, while respecting the unique history of the building,” Pike said. “We also incorporated stools made from fallen trees collected around Los Angeles, bringing another distinctly local, organic element into the space.”

The layout accommodates both grab-and-go traffic and customers staying in the cafe. Cafe Manager Adrian Luna oversees a bar producing drinks with Stumptown’s Hair Bender blend, its Trapper Creek decaf and rotating single-origin espressos, prepared on a cream-colored two-group La Marzocco Linea PB paired with a Mazzer Robur S and two Mazzer Kony S grinders.

Stumptown’s Los Angeles area manager Anna Bouchard and area educator Nicole Gharghoury will lead training for staff and wholesale partners in a separate onsite lab equipped with two Linea PBs and additional grinders.

Additional gear and training equipment has come out of storage following the January 2024 closure of Stumptown’s former Los Angeles flagship roastery cafe in the Arts District.

Founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1999, Stumptown expanded to Los Angeles with its Arts District roastery cafe in September 2013. A second Los Angeles cafe opened in the Fashion District in May 2019 but closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Stumptown opened a Pasadena cafe in February 2024.

Stumptown currently operates nine cafes outside its Portland airport locations: three in Portland, two in the Los Angeles area, three in New York City and one in Kyoto, Japan. Southern California cafes are supplied by Stumptown’s Portland roastery. The Starland project had been in development for more than a year before Keurig Dr Pepper acquired control of Stumptown parent JDE Peet’s on April 1.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters Los Angeles flagship is located at 2624 N. Broadway in Los Angeles.

Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.