Happy Monday! Everyone’s favorite day of the week…. not. We all know how much hate and shade we throw at Mondaze. If it weren’t for our local coffee shop, Coffee Co.Lab, I don’t know how we’d survive. Your bad gyalz from Hellz seriously come here every damn day.
Best coffee on the block, and I mean, lezzzz be fucking real, the Co.Lab boyz are a site for sore eyes…am I right, ladies?! 
We sat down with Frankie, one of the 4 owners, and chatted about the story behind Coffee Co.Lab:
What’s the Coffee CoLab story? Tell us about how the Coffee CoLab team got into the coffee business, and what’s the meaning behind the name?
It’s a pretty basic story—not much to it. We basically became tired of building companies for other people and watching them destroy what we had built and turn it into a monster. We witnessed everything from cutting corners to under appreciating employees and client disrespect (as in more money less product to gain a buck).
It was only natural for us to take a step away and take lead of the monsters we created and build a bigger, better, nicer, kinder, and gentler monster. We needed to restore integrity to our culture. You know after 10 years as a team we figured why not collaborate or make a coffee lab hence Colab or Co.Lab.
What’s a typical morning for the CoLab team?
That depends on who’s on bar… and who you ask. Some want a morning drink (aka BEN) some want a morning smoke (aka ALEX), some want the headache of being a first time small business owner to just disappear (aka Will, one of the owners). While others wants to go to krav maga (LEO) and others just want to charm the ladies that stop by for the morning “C” rush (hey, STEVE).
But for the most part, our typical morning is something we love. So it’s the “cool kid at school” feeling where you love the position you are in, but realizing your position in leading vs following .
Your cold brew is a morning staple for the HLZBLZ team! What can you tell us about mastering the craft of cold brews?
I can tell you we have spent tons of time figuring out the best common ground for palates to meet and agree, when you have passion for any one thing, you focus to the point where it drives you a little crazy or ocd. I can tell you it takes love, time, and care, just like anything else.
Can you tell us a bit about what Suits & Knives is, and how you came up with the name?
Simple: you need the suits in this world “ the day in day out 9 to 5” who buckle down and still want to be in the know about whats on the up and up, and the knives, the sharps, the “ still young and on point with current trend” with a grind for passion of being in the know and on the go with everything cool, and the middle ground of where we can meet and have something we can agree with good coffee, Suits and Knives
Coffee CoLab is more than just a coffee shop. It has a lifestyle element to it. What’s the lifestyle behind Coffee CoLab? What keeps you guys inspired?
Coffee is a culture that a lot of people don’t understand, but see and respect. We wanted to help it grow as a culture and elevate it to a lifestyle and move it to a more forward position of the publics eye. Our lifestyle is more based on the idea of loving what you do and expressing it through a blank outlet, leaving you with a unpainted picture so you can create and recreate anything at any given moment, because you don’t wake up every day with the same feeling and you don’t live every day the same so you shouldn’t have any one idea or limit to what or who you are, cuz in the end you are just you.
Where do you see Coffee CoLab in the next 5 years, and what projects can we expect in the near future?
Shooting shit on a boat, blowing stuff up, or saving dinosaurs, wish I could tell you but we play every day as if it’s a new day and even though we have goals for our long term we might wake up one day and feel like being sellouts, but we also could wake up the next day and be over it like…wow that was cool, but we’re glad everyday ain’t the same. For sure, we will definitely be immature and still making good coffee.
For more on Coffee Co.Lab, follow them on insta + twitter: @coffeecolab or swing by the shop on the Santee block: 305 E. 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA
