Our Spot Coffee isn’t a full-on brick-and-mortar—at least not yet. But at its current residency inside Noble Rotisserie over at the 2nd & PCH retail complex, husband-and-wife team Chris and Ali McColl are churning up the most innovative, outright challenging coffee concoctions since Bobby Hernandez was churning out dry-hopped iced coffee Recreational Coffee.
It’s a welcomed return to pushing boundaries in a coffee scene that is certainly strong, yes. But at the base? It has, in the words of Chris, “grown stale when it comes to altering the idea of how we can view coffee as an ingredient.” And there are two more weeks left in their caffeinated residency at Noble Rotisserie, running Thursdays through Sundays from 8AM to 3PM.
Our Spot Coffee is birthed out of a few things—firstly a lack of pretense.
Like many baristas, Chris’s journey into coffee began with one of the Big Boys. He began serving up Peet’s at the still-existing Irvine joint that is Specialty’s. Then, like many baristas who love coffee, he began to explore third-wave shops.
“I won’t entirely dismiss the corporate culture—there was value in that I learned about things that I wouldn’t have otherwise,” Chris said. “But when I got introduced to specialty coffee, I was taken aback by the depth of it.”
Like many who discover the richness of coffee beans halting in the roasting process before hitting the hyper-dark result that largely dominated the 20th century, Chris’s mind began to bounce around with what could be in a world where a bean didn’t need to be masked with creams and sugars. This led to work at many shops, including a longtime stint with Coffee Dose in Costa Mesa (inside a hair salon, no less) and heading up the second location in West Hollywood.
“I jumped into specialty coffee, quickly grew into management, and… Well, I was trained by all the worst people. I was the guy wearing boots and flannels and my beard and paperboy caps, thinking that you had to enjoy black coffee as a pour-over,” Chris said, laughing with a deep sense of humility. “But as I quickly grew, I met other like-minded individuals and really did some un-learning in a sense.”
And secondly, it’s birthed out of a need for something that separates itself from ideologies Chris and Ali, frankly put, don’t agree with.
And also like many baristas, the pandemic shifted Chris’s perspective and focus, leaning into consulting for coffee shops. As the whirlwind that was (and still is) COVID spiraled, Chris connected with a side of coffee that was reconciling with the fact that the days of night-pushing-into-morning, caffeinated-fueled days of shops were over.
With that networking, Chris and Ali were approached by investors to launch Little Lunch Coffee, still standing at Brooks and Pacific Avenues in Venice today. But two-and-a-half years in, with a stake of ownership that would be impossible to really own the space, the pair decided to return to the home of Ali’s mom, right here in Long Beach. And develop what they hope will ultimately be their spot.
“We want to have a family because the biological clock is a very real thing,” Chris said. “So it’s both about having our own brick-and-mortar, yes—but it’s also about a larger idea that is about altering the culture.”
By “altering the culture,” Chris is referring bluntly to transparency—even to the extent that he will break down numbers for customers who inquire about prices and figuring out ways to openly display how he operates his business.
“But the first and main goal is getting a storefront,” Chris said. “That might mean a little bootstrapping or finding other creative solutions—hopefully, finding an investor would be best. We would love to get this off the ground and invite people in for an opportunity. There is a real desire for me to see the change I saw then and the change I want to see now—whether that is about changing the way people think about coffee, the way people view transparency, or the industry itself.”
Our Spot Coffee is re-focusing the idea of what our mornings can be
The way in which we approach our mornings has vastly altered post-pandemic. Sure, there are many who still have the traditional scramble of needing to physically be somewhere at the wee-hours of the morning—and therefore depend on speed. But the expansion of the remote working world is a definitive reality that allows people to experience things slowed down.
“We appreciate having the spectrum of morning experiences,” Chris said. “We understand both people who have the luxury of determining their own hours and those who have more lax professional time dedication. But even in Venice, we saw those who didn’t have that option would work their ass off in order to make the experience at our shop.”
That experience? Well, it is not rushed: They purposefully slow-walk their drinks so that other customers can see the presentation (and likely order after they see the beauty of the drinks). Chris has created hand-made syrups that have been R&D’d to offer distinctly unique flavors.
“I want people to re-think what their morning could look like,” Chris said.
So what, exactly, are the drinks about at Our Spot Coffee?
There is some brutal honesty to face when it is understood that our coffee scene has—rightfully, I might add—rested on its laurels. We make solid beans. (Shout-out to Recreational, Rose Park, Black Ring, Stereoscope, Caffe Luxxe… The list goes on and on.) We make solid, classic drinks. (The cortados, macchiatos, lattes, Americanos…? They never tire. Ask any shop: “Addison gets an iced Americano.” I understand this base need.)
But when I say it harkens to the day Bobby Hernandez was churning out grapefruit iced coffee concoctions at Recreational? It reminds me of that. There’s tenacity. Complexity. A distinct understanding of flavor balance. It’s a barista gone bartender (which shouldn’t be shocking: Chris also taught himself the skills behind a bar and very much considers cocktail-crafting a kindred spirit of coffee-concocting. The only question he had was whether he preferred ending people’s nights or beginning their days. He obviously opted for the latter).
Here are some of the amazing highlights:
Coffee negroni: Sous-vide Ethiopian coffee | Ritual Zero Proof Gin and Apertif | Zero proof vermouth | Lemon peel
Cherry Disco: Espresso | Tonic | Cherry ginger cordial | Cardamom | Chocolate bitters | Luxardo cherry | Candied ginger
Matcha with lavender: Matcha | Lavender syrup | Oat milk | Lemon zest
Sous-vide coffee: Ethiopian coffee brewed at 145 degrees for eight hours. Served hot or iced.
Mama Bird: Hikari matcha | Oat milk | Fresh strawberry reduction | Freeze-dried strawberry | Lemon zest
Our Spot Coffee is currently in residency at Noble Rotisserie, located at 6460 E Pacific Coast Hwy. in Suite 125. They will be serving across the next two weeks on Thursdays through Sundays from 8AM to 3PM. Their last day in residency will be Sunday, Sept. 15.
