On a current drizzly morning, Couplet Espresso proprietor Gefen Skolnick stepped into her rainbow-hued cafe on the fringe of Echo Park and Westlake, stopping by tables to greet guests who have been sipping on drinks like bananas-and-cream matcha. A few of them had found the store by means of social media posts, whereas others have been passersby drawn in by the psychedelic colours. Most occurred to be Gen Z, Couplet’s goal buyer base.
Earlier than Couplet opened its flagship store in January, the espresso bean model had already cultivated a religious following that leaned into aesthetics, limited-edition product drops, community-building, storytelling and social media. Even the packaging — an attention grabbing holographic bag emblazoned with cheery drawings and Skolnick’s couplet poems — stood out on the cabinets of Erewhon and Mom’s Market.
After which final yr throughout a six-month contract, Couplet’s beans caffeinated hundreds of Snap staff on the tech firm’s headquarters in Santa Monica. Skolnick had constructed such a reputation for herself as a Gen Z whisperer that different manufacturers approached her, asking how one can join with youthful audiences.
Gefen Skolnick, founding father of Couplet Espresso, stated she wished a “fun and funky” house the place she and her mates felt like they belonged.
Couplet was only a seed of an concept that popped into Skolnick’s thoughts 5 years in the past when the Los Angeles native was a UCLA undergrad finding out laptop science. On the time, Skolnick — who describes herself on her web site as a “proud queer woman and coffee lover” — felt the espresso market was pretentious and off, and wished a “fun and funky” house the place she and her mates felt like they belonged.
“The whole concept of Couplet was that there needs to be great coffee made more approachable to people,” stated Skolnick, 28.
As behemoth firms like Starbucks are shedding staff to streamline operations, newer and smaller corporations like Couplet could also be ushering within the subsequent wave of espresso drinkers who’re searching for way more than simply caffeine.
Couplet Espresso hosts native occasions equivalent to neighborhood meet-ups, artwork workshops and velocity relationship at its Echo Park espresso store.
Hype tradition
“The hype and branding was built in before the coffee,” stated Skolnick, who took an unconventional strategy of promoting Couplet merchandise lengthy earlier than she even had beans out there.
Skolnick, a rising social-media star who labored in product administration at Hulu and Tesla by the age of 23, constructed a supportive circle for herself on X, previously Twitter, by tweeting about tech and enterprise capital investing. In 2020 when she started posting a couple of new espresso concept as a aspect venture, Jen Rubio, the co-founder and CEO of Away baggage (who would later grow to be Couplet’s first investor), shortly took discover and inspired Skolnick to do Couplet full time.
Rubio stated Skolnick was fairly educated about start-up corporations and fundraising.
“I had assumed she was already a full-time founder, and as I got to know her more, I realized she wasn’t and that was crazy to me,” Rubio stated. “Here’s someone with so much, not just passion or interest, but also a lot of knowledge and how this world works.”
It lit a fireplace beneath Skolnick.
To find out whether or not the model might grow to be a viable enterprise, Skolnick tried to hype Couplet to the lots. In 2021, she partnered with artist Ludi Leiva to create her first product launch: a consuming glass adorned with the Couplet emblem and cutesy mushrooms and clouds paintings. It went viral on TikTok, promoting tons of inside two days.
Considered one of Couplet’s first product releases was a consuming glass created with artist Ludi Leiva, adorned cutesy mushrooms and clouds. It went viral on TikTok.
Each different month, Couplet launched a brand new viral product. There was the collaboration with the environmentally acutely aware Kawa Challenge promoting vanilla latte candles made with upcycled espresso grounds. Skolnick then developed the extraordinarily viral cow-printed Mooka Pot and red-hearted French press.
“My sauce is I like to creatively do something and put it out really fast,” stated Skolnick. “Gen Z likes limited-edition drops and things that look and taste good.”
Some initiatives took a bit longer, although, just like the seven months Skolnick spent getting all the small print proper with Couplet’s iconic opalescent espresso bag that was designed by Javier Garcia. Skolnick inspired Garcia to maintain experimenting with textured supplies and discover a solution to have the patron expertise a journey by means of paintings and phrases on the packaging. This included including Skolnick’s couplets, like one which reads, “Tangy, funky, and bright, Couplet’s Peruvian feels like a beam of light.”
It wasn’t till 2022 that Couplet bought precise espresso on its web site.
Skolnick discovered her espresso bean provider by means of her X community — a Nicaraguan farmer with “deep connections,” she says. He linked her with different co-op and family-run farms, leading to Couplet’s choices, which ranged from mild single-origin Peruvian beans to a wealthy and candy espresso mix of Brazilian, Nicaraguan and Peruvian espresso.
In January, Skolnick added a matcha from the coastal metropolis of Ise in Japan to her Couplet portfolio, utilizing it in her bricks-and-mortar store and in addition promoting it wholesale to different L.A. companies like Café Tropical and Lemon Poppy Kitchen.
Moreover Couplet’s espresso choices, together with single-origin Peruvian beans and an espresso mix of Brazilian, Nicaraguan and Peruvian espresso, Skolnick added a matcha from Ise, Japan, which Couplet additionally sells wholesale to different L.A. companies.
The attract of a vibrant cafe
Whereas there are different cafes that additionally entice a Gen Z viewers (like Century Metropolis’s Chamberlain Espresso and Beverly Grove’s Neighborhood Items, each of which draw lengthy strains), Skolnick sees Couplet as a singular model that has carved its personal area of interest market.
At Couplet, the partitions are lacquered in shades of pastel pink and sky blue, juxtaposing the black-and-white checkered ground. Work of swans, mushrooms and the solar cowl the bar, emulating the appear and feel of Couplet’s merchandise. In a single nook, a dozen New Yorker magazines are fanned throughout a clear acrylic desk. The shelf connected to a fun-house mirror shows a Lana Del Rey CD and cassette tape, whereas different ledges are stocked with packaged items from fashionable manufacturers like Fly By Jing and Ghost City Oats, giving the small house superette vibes. A glass case holds grab-and-go gadgets from former All Day Child pastry chef Sam Robinson, like an Instagram-worthy sunny-side-up egg bacon galette, and Gooey Heart Bakery’s vegan cinnamon rolls.
On the menu at Couplet: signature whimsical espresso and matcha drinks.
Prospects have taken discover. Emily Anne Fernandez, 29, a supervisor on the Arts District’s Concierge Espresso who buys Couplet’s matcha wholesale for her store, spent her free time in Couplet’s patio producing music on her laptop computer.
“Personally, I noticed that a lot of shops are just white, so it’s nice to have a change in color,” Fernandez stated. “I like the floor and tiles.”
Past design, Skolnick wished to bridge the hole between specialty espresso heads and people who need enjoyable drinks. Along with well-crafted lattes and espressos, the signature drinks — created by Skolnick and her employees — are whimsical, with choices like a rosemary-and-passionfruit espresso tonic, and matcha punctuated with rose, cardamom and saffron.
Skolnick says she wished to bridge the hole between specialty espresso heads and people who need enjoyable drinks. Signature drinks are create by Skolnick and her employees.
When Skolnick was constructing out the cafe, she went to TikTok and Instagram (which has about 28,000 followers mixed) to doc her course of, asking followers for his or her enter on what they wished in a espresso store. It resonated along with her fan base, with people now touring lengthy distances from the Westside and South Bay to the cafe on the weekends. Inside the first month and a half of enterprise, Couplet bought 10,000 cups.
Zoe Worth, 20, who was again dwelling in L.A. whereas on faculty spring break, visited Couplet along with her mom for the primary time. She had been a longtime follower of Couplet on TikTok and was excited to lastly expertise it in particular person.
“The online presence was so welcoming and inclusive, and seeing Couplet’s passion from the beans to opening the store, and seeing the vision come to life was really special and rewarding,” Worth stated.
Constructing neighborhood
Skolnick believes Gen Z is invested in model possession. “The main thing people care about is, Can I connect with this brand?” stated Skolnick. “And then they start digging, asking, ‘Who’s running it? What’s the vibe that I get from them? Do I feel like I’m connected with their vision and mission?’ ”
Earlier than Couplet opened, Skolnick constructed model consciousness by means of espresso pop-ups, from Delight to run-club occasions. She’s made a concerted effort to proceed cultivating neighborhood by means of gatherings now held at her personal store, together with meetups for Girls In Visuals, the Deliver Your Personal Pen artwork group and Pal or Flame velocity relationship.
A current Pal or Flame velocity relationship occasion at Couplet Espresso.
The collaborations haven’t stopped both. For Valentine’s Day, Couplet teamed up with Kaja Magnificence (a Korean make-up model that resonates with the Gen Z viewers) to offer out a free Cherry Cola lip oil with every buy of a cherry vanilla cream high matcha and chilly brew drink. Over 800 folks lined up for it down the block over the span of a weekend.
“I definitely think it’s the experiential part [that’s important],” stated Brittany Wu, 23, senior social media affiliate of Kaja Magnificence’s father or mother firm, Memebox. “With L.A. being such a niche community, a lot of people are looking for things to do on the weekends with their friends. Cafe-hopping culture has increased as well.”
Skolnick is aware of she has her pulse on the Gen Z market and desires massive.
“I would like to open more coffee shops in L.A. and other places in the country,” she stated. “It would be great even internationally.”
