Where I actually get coffee, and where I take clients
I will save you the suspense. Most mornings it is Caffe Luxxe. They started on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, at 925 Montana, and they now have a spot on San Vicente at 11640 and one inside the Brentwood Country Mart. Same espresso, three completely different mornings depending on which door you walk through.
The three Luxxes, and when each one gets used
San Vicente is the weekday one. It sits in the middle of the Brentwood strip, which means I can get a coffee, drop a package, and run into at least two people I know before 9 a.m. If I am meeting a client for the first time and they live on the Brentwood side, this is where I suggest.
The Country Mart is the weekend one. You get your cup, you take it to the courtyard, and the kids get the bookstore and the toy store while you sit. It is the slowest cup of coffee in Los Angeles, in the best way.
Montana Avenue is for days I am working in Santa Monica, north of Montana especially. It is the original, it is small, and the walk down Montana afterward is a good way to look at houses without being obvious about it.
The new ones
San Vicente has changed more in the past year than in the ten before it. La La Land Kind Cafe moved into the old Coffee Bean space at 11698 San Vicente. Pop's Bagels opened at 11928 with a patio. Neighborly, the food hall at 11770 San Vicente, opened in April 2026 with a few counters under one roof. I am still working through the list, one morning at a time, and I will report back here when I have opinions worth sharing.
Why coffee is part of the job
The first conversation with a client is never about a house. It is about a life: where the office is, where the kids go in the morning, whether someone surfs or runs or neither, how long they plan to stay. That conversation goes better at a small table than across a desk, and it goes better in the neighborhood the person is thinking about living in. So I buy the coffee, and I listen, and by the second cup I usually know which three streets to show them.
A note on kids and cafes
Mine have learned that a cafe is where adults talk and children draw. The trick is a small sketchbook in my bag at all times and a pastry that takes a long time to eat. That is the whole system. It has survived three children and about a thousand client meetings.
Questions about a street, a house or a number? Text or call me at 310.498.1415, or email cwgrazianorealty@gmail.com.
Christina Woodward Graziano is a California real estate licensee (DRE #02072713) with Keller Williams Beverly Hills, 439 N. Canon Drive, Penthouse, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Each Keller Williams office is independently owned and operated. Equal Housing Opportunity. This post is general information from one agent, not legal, tax, insurance or financial advice; talk to your own professionals before you act on it. Business mentions are personal opinion. Nobody paid to be in this post.