Local Coffee Bean Housed in Hermosa History

Hermosa Beach residents have been meeting at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Hermosa Avenue for quick breakfasts, coffee dates and lunch breaks for years.

"But then when I see other Coffee Beans, I'm reminded that this holds so much history," said Janel Ylauan, 20, who works at the coffee shop.

Eighty-seven years ago, the intricately detailed building housed much more than an espresso machine. Known as the Metropolitan Theatre, it housed culture.

"The theatre has a beautiful entrance... underneath a marquee of rare artistic design," stated a Hermosa Beach Review front-page article stored in the Hermosa Beach Historical Society files from 1923. "Prominently arched and filled with expensive hangings… alcoves and costly paintings."

Richard Douglas King, a little-known architect and Hermosa Beach resident who died in 1945, designed the theatre. Funded by the First Bank of Hermosa Beach, the $200,000 project added two more property lots to the southwest corner of 13th Court and Hermosa Avenue.

Once completed, the building housed a First Bank, vaudeville theatre hall, retail businesses, and a Mason's lodge, all at once. Federal Realty in San Jose leased the 22,000 square-feet space to the international coffee and tea company in 1997. 

"A lot of older people will come in and say, 'wow, I used to come here when I was younger,'" Ylauan said, adding that she thinks the building is just as popular as a community-gathering place today as it was in the late 1920s.

Larry Robins, a postal worker who was delivering mail outside of the coffee shop on Thursday, added that the building reflects the community's continual effort to preserve history.

"Hermosa Beach has always been eclectic," Robins observed. "Part of why I think this building is still here is because the city wanted to keep its charm."

Even with Coffee Bean paraphernalia hanging on the interior walls, the building still holds embellishments from years past. High ceilings are lined from top to bottom with a fusion of majestic sculpture and Renaissance-like aesthetic. Symmetrical shapes accent the windows and walls with a beauty reminiscent of ancient Greece and Rome.

Visitors to Hermosa Beach, such as Ben Baker from New England, have no prior knowledge of the building, but notice the unique ceilings that "are uncommon for coffee shops," he said. He was completely unaware that the building once commonly flashed the Metropolitan's name in bright lights.