Urth Caffe – The Center of the Coffee Universe

by Brian

All this bad eating has been catching up with me lately.  All the ribs, burritos and desserts have left me in a food coma that has pretty much taken away my will to write.  But still, we soldier on, because there are so many more places that we need to try and places that you need to know about.

In the next month, I will be moving to San Diego and hopefully giving you guys some great insights into the food down there.  Mikey will continue to hold it down in the Ventura/L.A. areas and we may even be looking to add on some freelancers.  I’ll leave that last part up to Mikey, since he’s the brains of the operation.  Instead, I’ll just tell you about a little coffee shop I visited last weekend in Santa Monica.

Urth Caffe – On Main St. in Santa Monica

I think there are a few of these around, but it’s not a big chain so I figured I could review it for the site.  This place is like a bar, except instead of booze and drunken wannabes it has organic coffees and caffeinated wannabes.  It’s actually a pretty cool place and I stopped in with some friends to grab a coffee and some dessert.

This is in Santa Monica, right on main, so it’s a trendy spot.  They even have a valet to park your car for you.  I really wish Mikey and I had pulled up in his fly hoopty instead of showing up in my buddy’s tricked out truck.  But maybe it was better that way.  I felt like we only got into the place due to the coolness of my friend’s ride. (Thanks, J)

This place is hipster central.  It’s swarming with emo kids and their Risky Business Ray Bans and cute girls meeting their “producer” boyfriends.  But if you can get past all that, I think it’s worth a visit.  First off, their coffee and teas are excellent, but the main reason I’d go is just to eat some more of their awesome desserts.

On this trip, I opted for my usual cup o’ joe and got their chocolate pound cake to sample.  When I saw it in the case, I picked it because it looked pretty small.  It wasn’t.  I thought they only gave you a single slice, but instead they give you 3 slices of chocolate heaven.  This pound cake was fantastic.  It was rich, but not super heavy and it came coated in a light chocolate fudge sauce.  By light, I mean that it was more syrupy than fudge-like.  I most certainly do not mean to imply that it was, in any way, shape or form, low in calories.

Despite the fact that it wasn’t super heavy, it was still rich enough that I could barely eat half.  Like I said before, this is one of their “smaller” desserts, so obviously they are meant to be shared.  The desserts average 7-8 dollars each, but are better than what you get for the same price at most restaurants.

My friends shared some kind of cheesecake, that I was too stuffed to try.  They also got something called a Spanish Latte, which, as far as I can tell, is just a regular café latte.  The main difference between it and something you’d get at starbucks is the presentation.  In this case, the barista etched out a little palm leaf in the foam.  Pointless?  Yeah.  But it was still pretty freakin’ cool.

We grabbed a table out on the patio and I realized how packed this place was.  There was a line out the door almost the entire time we were there and people kept coming by to ask if they could steal the chairs we were saving for other friends.  Aside from that minor annoyance, it was still a nice place to sit and talk.  If you go, just know that sometimes it can get a little loud, even in the outdoor section.

Overall, I must say that this was a pretty cool place.  I definitely approve of the fact that they take pride in serving organic coffee and tea.  I doubt their desserts are organic, but they taste good and that’s all that really matters.

So next time you’re looking for a cool spot, to take a date for coffee and desert, give Urth a shot.  And while you’re at it, tell that emo kid to pull his pants up and get a real job.