Hello Neighbor!

I have many fond memories growing up (pre-kindergarten) and lying on the carpet in front of the TV in my childhood home, my unicorn (“Uni”) in one hand and an apple juice in the other, watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood as my mom was in the kitchen either cooking or tidying up the house and my sister was at school. I LOVED everything about that show. Being that I was a very hyperactive kid there was always a certain calm that came over me while watching it. I loved how Mr. Rogers would get frequent visits from the postman and other folks in his neighborhood. At a young age this small detail instilled in me the belief that being part of a strong community is so important.

Flash forward to today, we are now lucky enough to have our office in sunny Los Angeles, which is such a treat! There’s so much talent bubbling in our own close-knit neighborhood, and in the spirit of Mr. Rogers’ spotlighting everyday standouts I thought it would be fun to introduce you to some of the friends in our Los Angeles neighborhood and give you a peek inside their creative worlds. We hope you are as inspired by these incredible women as we are!

-Laura ODell

1. Tell us a little about Spoke, when it was founded and how you came up with the idea to do a cafe/bike shop combo? We think it's a brilliant concept, btw :-)

Well, thank you! We opened an early version of the bike shop and a pop up coffee cart in May 2015 right after I went to bike repair school in Oregon to get an overview on that. My partner and I spent a lot of time riding our bikes around the city stopping at places to eat and drink things. We lived in Atwater Village and would ride on the bike path a lot. We always said there should be someplace there for people to stop. When we rode by our spot one day we noticed a graffiti covered for lease sign on an equally graffiti covered prison-like structure, we decided to call and see what was behind the wall. It was a bit of a process from there, but the idea was built from the space, our interests, and some zoning/city requirements. I grew up in the restaurant industry, but had never run anything myself before, my partner had a coffee background, we found a bicycle genius who is still with us today, and we did a lot of learning as we went along. We started out with a bike repair stand and some tools along with a table and a coffee maker and a cardboard sign. We gradually added things, improved the bike shop, got the restaurant open, and our customers got to watch as we slowly evolved into what we are today. It's been a wild ride and we're still constantly improving and adapting and changing.

2. What's the most popular food item on the menu?

Currently it's the breakfast burrito and draft beer. During the pandemic everyone was all about those things and it kind of stuck. Can't blame them!

Follow along! IG:                               spokebicyclecafe