Bonsai Coffee & Bar

People line up at this Sawtelle counter on Santa Monica Boulevard for matcha, served under a sea-salt cream top, doubled up with matcha in the cream as well, or flavored with pandan-coconut or strawberry. There's hojicha and Vietnamese iced coffee too, and the food runs to spam or unagi musubi, breakfast burritos and an ube brownie topped with salted-caramel cornflakes. Two friends, Yanni and Tommy, opened it. By day the tables are mostly laptops; after dark the lights drop and the drinks turn to soju and sake cocktails, one of them made with taro.