00:00One of L.A.'s most viral new cafes, called Granada, is inside the personal Echo Park home of this couple.
00:07Feels like a house party every day.
00:10After 2 p.m., Sidney and Isaac do regular family things at home with their daughter.
00:15But from 9 to 2, Wednesday through Friday, strangers from around L.A. and even the world are stopping by
00:21to drink coffee, work, hang out, and make new connections.
00:25More Angelinos are opening businesses out of their homes.
00:29After L.A. County authorized micro-enterprise home kitchen operations, also called Mico's, in 2024.
00:37Customers told me they're drawn to Granada because it feels like you're all guests of the owner, making it easier
00:43to strike up conversations with strangers and feel a sense of community.
00:47The fact that it is a house, like, it's conducting for people to just stop talking to each other.
00:53And you always meet someone interesting here.
00:56Like, there's not one time when I came where there wasn't someone really, really nice to talk to.
01:01Maybe it feels more familial, comforting.
01:06A lot of people in the city probably are away from where they grew up or family or might find
01:12comfort in that the same way I do.
01:13I think it's just a little bit more family-friendly, and it's like a gated yard, and they have lots
01:20of kid toys around.
01:21And so it's just, like, ideal for letting a kid run around while you just sit down and kind of
01:26relax a little bit.
01:27Sydney and Isaac opened Granada in January to build community with their neighbors.
01:33We came off of COVID and then had a daughter, and, you know, each one of those things already could
01:40feel isolating.
01:41So we found ourselves on the other end of that, excited to build and foster and find community.
01:48We thought maybe just our friends would come, and maybe we'd meet some new people that we hadn't met before
01:53from the neighborhood.
01:54And we've had some, you know, a lot of good connections that have been made here, like romantic relationships, business
01:59relationships,
02:00just from people feeling like it's a safe space and they can open up and talk to somebody.
02:05It's not like a normal coffee shop where you just come in and get your coffee and, like, stare at
02:09your computer or, like, get your coffee and get out of there.
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