LA Cars and Coffee 3/29
Clay Kaytis | Published on 3/29/2026
All things shift when the weather gets better, and we’ve been noticing cars and coffees all over town are filling up – and then overflowing – earlier than usual. Same goes for LA Cars and Coffee at the Griffith Park carousel. I arrived at 6:45 to find Phil Caliva, already with coffee in hand and pastry in mouth. Monica was away for a weekend of vintage auto racing at Button Willow, so for company I brought our dog Chewie. (Phil’s great company too, but nothing beats a dog in a convertible).
After I hit up the coffee and donut truck, Tim McNiff, arrived to fill the last open spot in our corner, followed by a whole herd of Mustangs filing in. Lots of Porsches too, with a sighting of the local Porsche legend: Magnus Walker. And dogs, lots of dogs for my antisocial Chewie to sniff at, from a safe distance. (She likes people more than pets and LOVED the scraps of donut more than anything.) As Phil was leaving to head to a Huntington Beach car show, Amanda Cole took his spot in her white Bugeye, with husband Art Perez riding shotgun. We all chatted for a while, walked a circuit to see all the cars, ran into some old friends, then decided to all head out around the same time to start our days. This is one of my favorite C & C spots but get here before 7:30 if you want to sit with the cool kids in their Healeys.