Bevel Coffee Opens First Brick-and-Mortar in Altadena After Eaton Fire

Hundreds of people lined the sidewalk on Allen Avenue on the morning of February 28 when Kevin Mejia finally unlocked the doors of Bevel Coffee's first brick-and-mortar café, a 600-square-foot space on the Altadena/Pasadena border that represents one of the most visible milestones yet in the neighborhood's slow crawl back from the Eaton Fire.

The January 2025 fire killed 19 people, burned over 14,000 acres, and destroyed more than 9,400 structures. By Mejia's own estimate, it wiped out 70% of Bevel's customer base through displacement. Yet when the pop-up reopened in the fire's immediate aftermath, the remaining community showed up anyway. "We gave out drip coffee to whoever wanted to come and hang out while the ash was still in the air and the skies were black," Mejia said. "People showed up en masse to support, and we had one of the busiest first days ever."

That resilience traced back to a calculated bet Mejia had made years earlier. Previously the owner of a small group fitness gym, he turned a home coffee obsession into a roasting business in 2022, then in September 2023 planted a semi-permanent kiosk on the patio at Prime Pizza, just down the street from what would become the permanent shop. "We decided to look into doing a pop-up that we can do consistently so that we could create community and build the relationships with the neighborhood," Mejia said. The Eaton Fire interrupted that momentum, but the community bonds he had spent 18 months building proved durable enough to carry Bevel through a two-month closure.

Getting from pop-up to permanent address was its own ordeal. Mejia signed the lease in July, but building permits weren't issued until November and a final safety inspection wasn't completed until approximately February 20. Funding came from a combination of fire relief grants and small business loans, including grants from the Department of Economic Opportunity, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and Restaurants Care.

The finished space at 1864 Allen Ave features communal seating and a hand-painted mural that wraps around the ordering counter. The menu runs Ethiopian and Central American blends that Mejia roasts himself, alongside matcha lattes, loose-leaf teas, and pastries from Bakers Kneaded, with plans to add Culver City's Mustard's Bagels as the menu expands. Reach the shop at (626) 217-2828 or bevelcoffee.com.

For residents who had watched their neighborhood hollow out, the opening carried weight beyond the coffee. "After the fires, the Bevel pop-up was one of the first businesses to be back open and give a sense of normalcy. So they developed a huge sense of community belonging," said Altadena resident Taylor James. Nancy Stiles, another Altadena resident, called the moment "very full circle and very special." "It's a weekend touch point for us, and it's been really grounding for this community who's been through a lot," Stiles said.

Mejia is already looking ahead. He has his eye on a near-term upgrade to a 15-kilo roaster to support wholesale growth. On the retail side, he's deliberately measured. "I think that eventually I will look at doing cafe number two or three, but for now getting the current cafe running smoothly and getting our team feeling good comes first," he said. "Then we can get back to roots to keep connecting with producers and sourcing coffees we love.