This article is part of the guide to FT Globetrotter in Los Angeles
Perched at the corner of the bustling sunset over Silver Lake, the Cafetropical purple building hums peacefully. Its striped green awning matches the mint banquet and walls inside, singing towards the concrete floor. Bustelo Coffee Tins – nods to the Cuban roots of the restaurant – holds tools at the counter. All the tables are full.
It’s a typical day at Cafetropical. The owner jokes with the customer (“Stefannie, what do you need? We don’t have it. I’m kidding. I’m just kidding”) Cook chats with the diner while baking the croissants, and a dog walker grabs Cafe Sit on 15 wreaths. In the corner, the authors who wrote the three books here are steadily separated. On the wall is a lithograph by Sonya Sombreire.
The coffee scene in Silver Lake is crowded. Within the 3-block radius there are seven other cafes. Many people offer delicious coffee. Many are aesthetically refined and more Instagramable. And in all of them, you feel like a customer.
Tropical is different. There will be fewer transactions. And the story is proof of that: this cafe has been here for 50 years. After it suddenly closed last year, the neighborhood united to bring it back to life.
Tropical’s new co-owner, Danny Krungsey, warmly films my order and pulls up the chair. He says people always bring memories. Krungsey recalls with a laugh when the man told him he scooped ice cream as a child in the 1980s, when it was tropical ice cream and bakery, “before the Child Labor Act.”
I feel like I’m at home while sipping an Ice Cafe Conreche for $4.50 (a miraculous price in LA). Because I’m from Miami and this perfect Cuban coffee reminds me of the place where I grew up. But because everyone exists. It’s hard to find these days. It feels good here. It is said that he always has it.
Founded in 1975 by two Cuban brothers, Cafe Tropical is a beloved LA Hangout. For years it was the only coffee shop east of the Hollywood sign for miles. Guava Cheese Pass Pass Litos weathered the Sweeping Gentleman at Silver Lake, but the tropical run was turbulent. Over the course of his life, the ownership has been changed about seven times.
In November 2023, the restaurant closed unexpectedly. The current owner describes the reason as “monetary mismanagement and family disputes.” Staff gave customers 24-hour notifications in handwritten window notebooks.
Soon, the community united to preserve it.
The new owners of Tropical are former customers of Khorunzhiy, Ed Cornell and Rene Navarrette. Khorunzhiy and Navarrette have been regulars for years. Cornell was their friend and a chef working for LA Hotpots quarter sheet and La Dolce Vita. Together, with the support of the neighborhood, they rehired most legacy employees and brought the business back.
Today, tropical has the same spirit, but it runs smoother and the food is more refined. They call themselves “Cuban Island,” and Cocopan coexists alongside Cobb salad. After 10 years of playing the Badgee Milk Cult Ice Cream, Cornell has revamped his kitchen. He manufactures all his bakery dough in-house, attacks farmers’ markets twice a week, and sources seasonal produce from family farms in California.
The team shortened the menu, but their biggest hit remains. Cubano is served hot hot piping, oval slabs of thin salty white bread, balanced with a thin salty sheet of delicate and salty ham and pulled lechon (pork). According to Cornell, guava cheese pie and pastelite are “now and forever.” Flake-like puff pastries filled with rich guava paste, softened with delicious whipped cream cheese and cream fresh. Menu items include past and present team odes, ranging from “Danny’s Breakfast,” named after Khorunzhiy, to “McManny” sandwiches by Manager/Cook Manuel Contreras and “Donato’s Pie” by former owner Donato Lopez. The reasonable price was also maintained. A breakfast sandwich costs $10.
More than 30 years ago, Lopez asked Lopez about Donato’s pie fame, whether empty storage space could be used as a room for a 12-stage recovery gathering. He was met there for free until his death in 2016. These meetings are still going on. Now they charge $25 an hour, 40 groups each week, hosting the most recovery-centric groups, Breathwork, Open Microphones and Sold-Out Silver Lake Reading Club events. After these meetings, participants pour into the cafe, eat and chat. Khorunzhiy often jumps from table to table and checks in (“I’m sitting with you, hanging!”).
This year, Tropical will celebrate both its first birthday and its 50th birthday. When I visit, balloons from the speckle of that 1st anniversary party celebrate the ceiling. In this first year, we expanded our adjacent spirit. Among other things, they sell wholesale of pastries to surrounding cafes, sell partners at local nonprofits, donate kitchen spaces to make hungry meals, and provide kitchen spaces. They were serving the East Side, especially through the January fire.
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes the cafe’s tropical different. Maybe there’s a team out there that actually exists. They don’t have wifi. They’ve been experimenting all the time, and in Cornell’s words, “we’re not trying to go viral due to popular pastries.” During one visit, Coffee Director Talks Yoy passes through me the flavor of strawberry oat milk he made and explains the recipe. Contreras makes Khorunzhiy the off-men “Taco Salad” and the Greens are wrapped in crispy tortillas. He then tests the rectangular donut. This is how Navalette observes, “It feels like it’s from here onwards.” He looks at me, brings me in, half blueberries and half strawberry glaze, the oven drips with fresh and subtly sweet, crisp, fluffy on the crisp edges. Like a vegan cookie rich in silky franc and cocoa, it is seemingly decadent (sleeper hits, but regulars know).
Tropical is caught up in the 2pm. Navarrette will teach you about your 50th annual idea. Maybe they’ll have a summer block party and roll out new ice cream flavours. He smiles and visits the cafe in his early years with the old LA. No matter how long he was, he was always able to count on loving advice from Donato, and he was always able to return to where we were sitting now. “I think it’s a privilege to have this position,” he says.
I wonder who’s sitting at this table talking about him?
Cafe Tropical, 2900 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Open from Tuesdays from 7am to 3pm. Website; Instagram; Direction
Alexa Economacos is a Los Angeles-based author and filmmaker
What are your favorite coffee shops and community spots in Los Angeles? Please drop it in the comments below.
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