Kéan Coffee Artisan Roasters

Founded in 2005 – a year after founder Martin Diedrich left the large Diedrich Coffee chain he’d built from Orange County since 1983 – Kéan Coffee remains a snapshot into a moment in time when thoughtfully located cafes would become neighborhood coffeehouses, actual community gathering places centered around high-quality coffee and pastries. During a period when Diedrich’s corporate pieces were being assimilated by Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Kéan Coffee remained focused solely on two stores in Newport Beach and Tustin, the latter housed in the same location as the first Diedrich store (and now home to Gen Korean BBQ, Okidoki, Wahoo’s, and 7 Leaves).

Walking into that store today, you can still see the 1990s/early 2000s rounded interior design, Cheesecake Factory-style Italian decor/finish influences, and shelves of DIY home coffee gear, as well as crowds of people lining up at the counters and filling the tables. There’s still a charm and soul to Kéan that Starbucks lost so long ago that most of its current guests never knew it had; in our most recent visit, loyal Kéan customers and busy baristas took the time to interact as human beings, rather than just being there to place and fill numbered orders. At the same time, Kéan doesn’t offer wi-fi or power outlets, a deliberate move to make its locations places to socialize rather than to work or study. All of this adds up to the polar opposite experience of increasingly depersonalized, app-based “pick up and go” coffee vendors like Cotti Coffee – in a good way.

Though there are hints of prior cafe trends (hot sipping chocolate, chai and matcha lattes, acai shakes) in its offerings, Kéan also doesn’t appear to be chasing modern social media fads at all. The menu starts with espresso-based drinks ($3.75 to $6.50) that default to using fairly strong beans and whole milk, continues with hot and cold-brewed coffees ($3.50 to $7), mochas ($6.25 to $7.50), five-ounce melted “chocolate nirvanas” ($9), coffee or tea frappes ($7), ice cream-based shakes ($8), tea drinks ($4.50 to $7), Italian sodas ($5.25 to $5.75), and lemonades ($4.50 to $6.25). Ice cream ($5.50), affogatos ($8.50), acai bowls ($11.50), bagels, and pastries ($5 to $7.50) are all available to eat; baked goods can be served at room temperature or heated, as requested.