Coffee culture dates back to the 14th century when Arabian coffee drinkers would gather at coffee houses, the social meccas of the their time, to exchange gossip, play backgammon, and listen to music.

It is our distinct desire to participate in this long-standing cultural tradition. Paper or Plastik Cafe wants to re-introduce the role of coffee as a social pleasure. Our intention is to create a casual yet carefully curated environment that will serve its purpose as artistic center and social gathering point with extraordinary coffee as our nucleus.

Our coffee meets Intelligentsia's esteemed Direct Trade criteria: it is of exceptional quality, it exceeds Fair Trade prices, and it is the product of sustainable social and environmental practices. We take pride in the relationship with our roasters and our mission is to serve only the highest caliber coffee.

The Legend

We have always been fascinated with the neighborhood café as a social staple. Versatile in nature, cafes supply not only food and drink, but also companionship and conversation. They are places for meetings and social gatherings, for people watching and even for killing time. In the way of community building, the café is a hub of regularity, where the servers reliably recall your preferences and familiar faces appear over each table. The socialvibrancy and ease of the café environment lends its visitors a sense of belonging. Everywhere we've lived and traveled – Russia, Israel, Europe, the U.S. – we always look for a nice café to make our home. Back in the 90s when we first arrived in Los Angeles, there weren't many independent cafes that we knew and liked. At the time, Starbucks has just begun to establish its presence all along Ventura Boulevard. It was a fresh concept. Baristas at Starbucks were amiable and cool, so we settled in to our own corner Starbucks in Studio City. Since then, Starbucks has conquered this business niche and brought the café lifestyle to America.

But we were still missing the cultural factor of the cafes we grew to love in New York, Moscow, Prague, and Amsterdam—places where artists congregated after performances, where people came dressed to the nines to see and be seen. Despite our search, we could not find a haunt that would satisfy all our ideals.

We slowly realized that we had developed another dream – to have our own café. A few years ago with Yasha's acquisition of the renowned Dancer's Studio, this dream unexpectedly turned into a plan. We saw the opportunity to renovate the front of the building into a café and to give Anya the chance to have a store where she could design what she had always wanted. And now this plan is becoming our reality.

We'd like to be able to tell our friends that they can find us everyday at the café. We'd like to have our public feel that they know the owners personally. We're not just serving coffee. We're serving a lifestyle.

— Anya & Yasha Michelson

Why Paper or Plastik?

One night, I was reluctantly sent to Ralph's Supermarket to buy some emergency groceries. The huge space was very quiet, devoid of customers, and it somehow made me feel very lonely. Suddenly, after sleepily playing the cashier, I heard a voice from behind me, "Paper or Plastic?" I slowly turned my head to see a beautiful young African-American girl smiling at me and asking again, "Paper or Plastic?" And at that moment I said to her, "What a beautiful name for a coffee shop."

— Yasha Michelson