Bobby Roshan
Founder of Demitasse
(323) 844-3233
135 S. San Pedro Street
    
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Bobby Roshan, the founder of Demitasse, used to be a lawyer. He remembers sitting in his office with a few people kicking around names for that coffee company he would one day start. Someone brought up the name “demitasse.” It just means little espresso cup in French, but Bobby liked it. The name sounded fancy, but it meant something very simple.
Not too long later, Demitasse opened its first location in Little Tokyo. Two additional locations and a roastery followed. And like the name, Bobby says, “We pretend we’re kind of fancy, but at the end of the day what we do is a very simple idea: Add hot water to ground coffee, and filter it out.” Read on to learn more about this coffee entrepreneur inspired by quality ingredients, sustainable practices, and the neighborhood around him.
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How did you get your start in Little Tokyo?
Bobby Roshan: We opened Demitasse in 2011 and have been here since. We got lucky and found a landlord willing to lease us this funky little wedge. I do everything here from washing dishes to brewing coffee. People often say, “Oh, you own Demitasse!” But really, Demitasse owns me. I’m speaking at JACCC tonight discussing seven do's and don’ts of starting your own business. I've got a lot of the don't down.
What is your most memorable experience in
Little Tokyo?
BR: Early on, probably during the first two years here, it was dead and raining. It was just me with maybe two or three customers. One of them was an ambassador to Los Angeles from Japan. The group of us got into a super deep conversation about all sorts of things. It was such an interesting experience, and only in Little Tokyo would you have such a cross-section of people standing at a coffee shop talking. I think something very unique to our Little Tokyo space is its little coffee bar where people can just sit, chat, and make friends. My dream is to have a couple meet and get married here. We would cater free coffee at that wedding for sure.
If I had one hour to do something in Little Tokyo,
what would you recommend?
BR: If I had one hour, I would go to Marukai or Nijiya and just roam the aisles and look for interesting ingredients to either make drinks with here or take home and cook. The wealth of unique produce at these markets is such an asset to Little Tokyo. Demitasse has a whole section of its Little Tokyo menu dedicated to drinks inspired by the neighborhood. We have everything from a Yuzu Matcha Latte to drinks with Okinawa black sugar. And we get all that stuff from the neighborhood. We are at Marukai all the time. We’re on a first name basis with those guys.
What makes Little Tokyo different from other
neighborhoods?
BR: I think there are a few things that make Little Tokyo unique. One, it's managed to maintain its Japanese identity in an authentic way. You have a sense of history here that you don't have in a lot of other neighborhoods in LA. Little Tokyo is also such an interesting intersection of cultures and diverse people. You get Japanese grandmothers coming into our shop, city employees, residents from the area, cosplayers on the weekends, families, social workers from Skid Row. You never know who's coming through the doors. It's always fun. I love it. I think it's such a cool, little neighborhood.
What legacy do you want to leave in Little Tokyo, and what do you hope for the future of the neighborhood?
BR: We are trying to push for a community garden on First Street with Sustainable Little Tokyo. It’s been my pet project. I would love to create a cycle where people are composting their waste and putting it back into a community garden. And then, local restaurants could buy some of the produce or alternatively use the garden to grow their own produce. If I could help to leave a legit community garden that brings together all the different bits and pieces of the community, that would be pretty great.
For the neighborhood, I love to see Little Tokyo continue to push forward as a model of sustainability for other communities to follow. With its tight-knit group of community organizations and small-size, Little Tokyo has the potential to really move sustainability in a forward direction.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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