{"id":440176,"date":"2026-08-22T05:38:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/440176\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T05:38:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:38:31","slug":"blank-street-cafe-chain-opens-location-in-studio-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/440176\/","title":{"rendered":"Blank Street cafe chain opens location in Studio City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After months of anticipation, Blank Street opened its first Los Angeles location in Studio City on Aug. 12. Launched as a coffee cart in Brooklyn in 2020 by former tech entrepreneurs Vinay Menda and Issam Freiha, the venture capital-backed cafe chain has since grown to nearly 100 locations around the world.<\/p>\n

The company announced<\/a> its West Coast debut in April, with locations in Studio City and Beverly Hills originally slated to open in June. While the Beverly Hills outpost is still forthcoming, the Studio City location was quick to draw lines. On Tuesday morning, dozens queued up, sometimes wrapping around the shop\u2019s interior.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A pre-opening view of Blank Street\u2019s new Studio City location. <\/p>\n

(Matthew Westgate)<\/p>\n

On the menu are Blank Street\u2019s signature drinks, all of which can be ordered with espresso or matcha as the base, including the cookie butter-flavored Blondie latte, the cinnamon- and honey-forward Daydream latte and the shaken vanilla bean cold brew or matcha. The Cortado Cloud, a 4-ounce espresso or matcha drink sweetened with vanilla syrup and finished with a thick cream top<\/a>, is exclusive to Studio City. <\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n

Customers at the first L.A. outpost of coffee chain Blank Street appreciate the shop\u2019s signature drinks. But some worry about the expanding company\u2019s effect on small neighborhood business.<\/p>\n

Customers didn\u2019t have to wait long to try Blank Street\u2019s beverages. Lines at the tech-driven cafe move quickly thanks to automatic espresso machines that produce eight espresso shots at a time and up to 700 per hour. Patrons who place orders via the Blank Street app can bypass the line and approach the counter directly to pick up their drinks. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe line was long, and we got these drinks in, like, three minutes,\u201d said Angela Guice, a Studio City resident who has previously visited Blank Street\u2019s East Coast locations. \u201cThe coffee shops I love, they take a long time. Blank Street has got the efficiency down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicolas Monroe, a Studio City resident trying Blank Street for the first time on Tuesday, said he\u2019s seen the brand\u2019s online backlash. Some critics have pointed out that the company is backed<\/a> by private equity firms and is taking over local storefronts while directing profits back to veiled corporate headquarters.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The exterior of Blank Street\u2019s new Studio City location. <\/p>\n

(Matthew Westgate)<\/p>\n

\u201cI prefer going to one-off locations,\u201d Monroe said, \u201cor if it\u2019s a chain, a chain that\u2019s local to L.A. But this is a space that hasn\u2019t had a business in it for a little while. So if there is some benefit that\u2019s being brought to the community, I do see that as valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monroe said he won\u2019t add Blank Street into his daily coffee rotation, noting its proximity to local favorites like Yala Coffee and Lynx Coffee.<\/p>\n

Blank Street\u2019s co-founders were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudio City felt right for our California debut,\u201d Freiha said in a press release. \u201cBeyond the neighborhood\u2019s charm and storied history, it has the creative spirit and strong sense of community that matters so much to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blank Street plans to open two additional L.A. area locations, one at the Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood and another in Malibu, in late fall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After months of anticipation, Blank Street opened its first Los Angeles location in Studio City on Aug. 12.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2029,174536,1804,174538,174540,48,52,51,21023,972,5936,47,50,49,157603,174537,1166,23914,315,1069,174539],"class_list":["post-440176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-beverly-hills","tag-blank-street","tag-company","tag-espresso","tag-issam-freiha","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-line","tag-local","tag-location","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-matcha-drink","tag-nicolas-monroe","tag-shop","tag-studio-city","tag-time","tag-tuesday-morning","tag-venture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}