Blue Star Donuts Brings More Coffee To Venice Beach
The Portland-based Blue Star Donuts is not only bringing doughnuts to Venice Beach, but also coffee. While the company is filling a void when it comes to doughnut shops in the area, it’s increasing the competition when it comes to coffee in Venice.
The stretch of Abbot Kinney where Blue Star is setting up shop is filled with coffee shops. There are at least four other establishments within a quarter mile of each other serving coffee.
At the corner of Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Westminster Avenue is Blue Bottle Coffee. One block east is 3 Square Cafe. Two more blocks east is Intelligentsia Coffee. Across the street from Intelligentsia is TOMS — the shoe company which also serves its own coffee inside its store.
To see a map of the coffee shops, click here.
Blue Star sits in between 3 Square and Intelligentsia.
The coffee which Blue Star will serve is from Stumptown Roasters. Naturally, Stumptown is also from Portland.
Blue Star wasn’t serving coffee on Monday which led many people to grab a cup at one of the many coffee shops along Abbot Kinney.
“It’s definitely been really busy this morning, and I’m seeing a lot of people with doughnuts in hand,” said Selina Viguera, manager at Blue Bottle Coffee.
TOMS lead barista Mark Johnson also noted the appearance of customers with doughnuts in hand Monday morning.
The arrival of a doughnut shop on Abbot Kinney may have boosted business for the other coffee shops on Monday, but that won’t necessarily be the case once Blue Star begins pouring its own cups.
“More competition,” Johnson said. “Definitely gets us to think of other ways we could constantly improve our product in the cafe just so we can compete — same with Intelligentsia and Blue Bottle.”
Other coffee shop managers put a positive spin on Blue Star’s arrival.
“It’s great to have more and more coffee around because it brings more people into the neighborhood,” Viguera said.
Viguera noted that the coffee served by Blue Bottle is distinct from Blue Star’s Stumptown.
Yan Quan, the general manager at 3 Square Cafe, also distinguished the offerings at her store from Blue Star.
“We used to actually carry Stumptown but we switched to Caffe Luxxe,” she said. “They’re a little less acidic and more of a smooth, cocoa, chocolate, caramelly flavor as opposed to the lemony acidic flavor that Stumptown is”
Quan viewed the proximity of Blue Star to 3 Square in a positive light.
“We’re excited to have them on our side of the street because it seems like a lot of stuff happens on the far end,” she said. “Anybody who wants to come to this end and attract more people, we’re like thumbs up!”
3 Square sells pastries, but not doughnuts. The closet location for doughnuts and coffee is a Dunkin’ Donuts located about two miles away in Culver City.
