Lavazza expands Los Angeles training center to deepen coffee culture reach

Los Angeles got a bigger Lavazza footprint as the Italian brand expanded its West Hollywood training center into a wider showcase for coffee culture, education and industry ties.

On April 20, 2026, Lavazza opened the newly expanded center at 9220 Sunset Blvd., Suite 218, and folded it into a North American training network that includes New York, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, West Chester, Pennsylvania, and Toronto. Lavazza says the worldwide network has 58 locations, though its training pages also describe 7 offices in Italy and 47 around the world, while another page lists 55 worldwide locations.

The company has built the Los Angeles site as more than a brand display. Lavazza describes its Training Center as the world’s largest coffee school network, with a mission to spread espresso and coffee culture globally, and says it serves baristas, catering staff, sales reps, distributors, newly hired staff, journalists and opinion leaders. Michelle Kawahara is listed as the local trainer, giving the center a clear on-the-ground face as it expands its reach in Southern California.

For café operators and coffee professionals, the practical value is in the training menu itself: hands-on instruction, SCA-certified pathways, menu and specialty beverage development, coffee-design programming, and advanced brewing and espresso education. In a city where food, hospitality, design, film and lifestyle culture overlap, that makes the center a working base for staff development and concept testing, not just a place to sample a brand.

The Los Angeles move also fits Lavazza’s wider cultural strategy. The company has positioned itself as a coffee partner for the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Daily Front Row Fashion Los Angeles Awards, and it worked with IndieWire around the 41st Spirit Awards in February 2026 through a branded red-carpet collaboration. Lavazza opened its Dallas training center on December 12, 2025, making Los Angeles its second major North American training-center investment in less than six months. The message is blunt: in one of the most influential coffee cities in the United States, education is now a core part of how Lavazza builds loyalty, relevance and long-term growth.