Caffe Vita opens in Silver Lake with free coffee

You might have noticed the Neapolitan puppet, Pulcinella, painted on the wall at the corner of Silver Lake and Sunset boulevards next to Rudy’s Barbershop. It’s the mascot for Seattle-based Caffé Vita Coffee Roasting Co., which opened its first Los Angeles cafe in Silver Lake today.

Give it up for yet more caffeine along the Eastside stretch of Sunset, including Intellgentsia at Sunset Junction and the months-old Taza in Echo Park (you might miss the latter if you’re driving along Sunset and blink after Happy Tom’s Burgers).

To celebrate its official debut today, Caffé Vita is serving free coffee drinks to neighbors.

The two-level corner cafe across the street from the Vista Theatre comes from Caffé Vita owner Michael McConnell, who also opened a cafe and roasteria on the Lower East Side in New York last year. Caffé Vita has nine cafes in Seattle and Portland, Ore. The first opened in Seattle in 1995.

Caffé Vita general manager Kelse Kwaiser (who, by the way, competed in the World Siphon Championship in Tokyo last year), says the cafe also is offering pastries, “but I also have a panini press” just in case.

4459 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, www.caffevita.com.

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