Blue Bottle opens new cafe on Abbot Kinney in Venice

Blue Bottle Coffee opens its newest coffee shop this week on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. The official grand opening is Tuesday, but the cafe already is serving coffee -- espresso drinks and its New Orleans iced coffee, for example -- to the neighborhood.

The 661-square-foot space near the corner of Westminster Avenue (in what was formerly French50s60s) was designed by San Francisco-based Jensen Architects. Blue Bottle founder James Freeman also worked with a company called Tekamaki to install a James Turrell-inspired light fixture behind the barista bar, made of more than 1,700 LED pixels that fades into various colors, starting at 6:05 a.m. and ending at 7 p.m.

The cafe’s espresso machine is Amsterdam-based Kees van der Westen’s Spirit Model, a gleaming, Sputnik-y apparatus with Idrocompresso lever groups and a custom back panel with Blue Bottle’s logo. The otherwise minimalist cafe also features maple counters (salvaged from a single tree in Washington).

Baked goods are from Farmshop, served along with Blue Bottle’s own signature cookies. The pastry menu will expand over time. Blue Bottle is serving its single origins and blends as drip, espresso drinks and its New Orleans iced coffee made to order and in to-go cartons. The house espresso is Dandy, which is exclusive to Los Angeles. Almond milk is from Almond Milk LA.

Along with the new cafe, Blue Bottle (which earlier this year acquired Handsome Coffee Roaster and Tonx) announced its Blue Bottle at Home subscription service, which features delivery of two-week supplies of coffee. Subscriptions cost $11 to $38 and are available via its website.

1103 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, www.bluebottlecoffee.com.

Three cups of coffee a day. Follow me on Twitter @bettyhallock