I am always looking for great cafes -- something that is often difficult to do in Los Angeles, but which has, luckily, become incrementally easier by the year. My new favorite place is called Broome Street General Store. And cafe. In Silverlake. This place puts you at ease it’s so comfortably elegant, causing strangers to chat with one another, including many stranded New Yorkers bonding over the nostalgia! I had a chance to chat a bit with one of the owners’ many supportive friends, and the story goes like this: the owner, Sophie Esteban, a former SoHo resident who used to live on Broome Street in Lower Manhattan, opened up this place with her business partner and husband Peter Graham in the likeness of all the sorts of shops and general stores on her old block. Broome Street just opened about five weeks ago to great success, and the power couple are having a baby because sometimes fantastic things happen all at once! And the place is absolutely gorgeous. It has a vintage feel to it. Not only does it sell various specialty-kitchen-staples-that-you-probably-can’t-find-anywhere-else, jewelery, gardening tools, and vintage toys, but nestled inside is a really great cafe along with patio seating! They make fantastic espressos using New York’s Gimme! Coffee and the deli is encased with food from places like Cube Cafe and Cake Monkey. And let me tell you, the coffee is delicious.