Love, Legacy & Ube: A Family Love Story

NHM Online Presents L.A. Culture in a Cup, a year-long initiative celebrating the stories of the diversity of Los Angeles and its people through the lens of the beverages and their significant vessels that bring us together.

 Tucked into Thai Town on a vibrant stretch of East Hollywood, Obet & Del's Coffee is far more than a neighborhood coffee shop. Founded by husband-and-wife duo Josh Oliveros and Heather Knox, the cafe is named after Josh’s parents, Robert ("Obet") and Delia ("Del") Oliveros, a Filipino immigrant couple who met in New York City in the 1970s before eventually making Los Angeles their home. From hand-painted retro wall stripes crafted by a crew of friends to an ube-infused iced coffee created to celebrate Filipino identity in L.A., Obet & Del's stands as a love letter to family, heritage, local community, and connection.

Heather stands with the Filipino Latte an true homage to the life and community that she and Josh have built into Obet & Dels Coffee.

Our growth is thanks to our neighbors and community.

Josh Oliveros

What is the story behind the Obet & Del's Coffee?

Heather Knox (Co-Owner): I'll tell people, 'Obet & Del's is a love story about this couple whose friends call them Obet and Dels.’  Obet is a nickname for Robert, it's Robert without the R's, and it's a popular Filipino nickname. Del, Josh's mom's nickname, is short for Delia. We were hanging out with them, and I suggested we use their logo and name for the shop. At that time, they thought we were kidding.

Josh Oliveros (Co-Owner): When I was a kid going to their friends' parties, or the parties at our house, people would ask, 'Where's Obet and Del?'. They're like the original hipsters. They still do pour-overs. My parents left the Philippines. They didn't even come together, they met each other in New York City in the 70s. It got too cold for them.They had a lot of friends in LA, so they're like, 'We're moving to L.A.' We took a family road trip from the East Coast to the West Coast with my siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles, and we've lived here since I was in kindergarten.

Heather: I love Hollywood. Nice weather, super diverse. My mom and I used to move around a lot. She was a single mom trying to find the best space and neighborhood for us, one that kept us busy and creative. In my first years, we lived with my grandmother in South Central, then moved to Koreatown, then East Hollywood by the time I was 8. I grew up walking to the donut shop and doing laundry at the Thailand Plaza before it was officially Thai Town.
Josh and I live here as well, and before opening the first coffee shop, we saw that what the neighborhood really needed was a place for the community to gather. My first thought was, 'Okay, well, someone should open that... hey, we should open that.' We were already in hospitality, so we just went at it. We contacted Josh's dad, a retired architect, who had created the Obet & Del logo for Josh's mom before computers were common. He's from the era when architects hand-drew logos with small drafting tools. Within the last decade, our cousin redesigned it with our brand colors and the '70s essence in mind. We have a daughter now, so we call him Lolo.

Josh: We're really a mom-and-pop operation. When we opened this place, we quit our jobs, and at some point we had to go back to work. We used all of our money and poured it into this place. It was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. When we found the space, most of the brick wall was covered, but some plaster was chipping off. That's how we discovered the brick, and we scraped the plaster off bit by bit. When they say sweat equity, there was a lot of sweat equity in this project, down to me sewing the textiles for our original benches. 

Heather: One thing Josh would always say is, 'Let's work with what we have!' We'd look at the space and say, 'Okay, how do we work with what's already here?' There was beauty underneath all the wires. The last business in this space closed over 20 years ago. A lot of our designs came from 'Okay, the plumbing is on this side, so that's the bar.' Permitting was difficult, but these little sacrifices made opening more sustainable.
We were driven and, at that time, naive to the process. 'No' meant try again later. We went to the city and health permitting offices every single day, without fail, constantly asking questions and for help. We rallied each other, saying we needed to move forward, and we got our permits in the nick of time. We opened on January 3, 2020, just a couple of months before the pandemic hit.

You opened right before the pandemic hit. How did the community step up to support you?

Josh: Many of our biggest opportunities come from our guests and the relationships we've built with our neighbors. We've had guests see us during a slow stretch and say, "We want to help." Some of our regulars, now good friends, Lee Mosa-Peterkin, a Palestinian-American filmmaker, Anna Dale-Meunier, a seasoned script supervisor, and Matthew Brush, a photographer and gaffer helped us make an amazing commercial highlighting our Filipino Iced Coffee. Then, during the Covid lockdowns, the Black Lives Matter marches came to Hollywood. Twenty thousand people walked in protest, and a few days later, 50,000 people did the same walk, right past our door. We joined the protest, and we were so grateful for the support that followed. We had a line out the door almost every day, and eventually business was back to normal. 

Heather: Our neighbors showed up for us, many of them every single day. When the pandemic was unfolding and businesses had to decide whether to stay open or close, we asked ourselves what would be best for our neighbors, and the answer was to stay open. Staying open gave the neighborhood peace of mind and a sense of routine when little else was available, and our neighbors gave that support right back.

On June 7, 2020, the shop was quiet all morning, the new normal at the time. We saw a couple of new faces, so we welcomed them in and began making their orders. Before we could finish, a line formed, and the next thing I knew, we'd served so many people that we ran out of things. Our regulars told us the line was down the street; they'd thought we were giving something away for free.

Every day after that, we were busy and so thankful for the support. Our neighbors are kind and intentional, and even now, many of those same folks are still our regulars. We've seen careers change, families grow, and creative endeavors come to fruition. It's really sweet.

The protests that filled the streets of Hollywood in June of 2020 are part of how Obet & Dels survived those early days of the pandemic years.

Courtesy of Obet & Dels Coffee

What is the story behind your featured drink, The Filipino?

Heather: Home of the Filipino Iced Coffee! We wanted a legacy drink, one that could stand alongside a Vietnamese or Thai iced coffee. Naturally, ube came to mind. We're pretty buttoned-up about our own coffee, mostly a simple cortado or cappuccino, but we love this drink because the ube milk has a rich, caramelized sweetness. Flavor-wise, it goes with most things: savory, sweet, day or night. Next, we're working on a drink that represents our Black culture.

Josh: It represents our pride in our culture and our family, especially raising our daughter, Sunset, who is Black and Filipino. All of these thoughtful touches are for her. Some people are hesitant to say 'Filipino Iced Coffee.' They'll say 'ube latte,' and we'll kindly correct them.
We have neighbors who drink it every day as their standard latte. The flavor, the texture, the yammy bits, and the lungo espresso on top are intentional, and I'm proud to serve it to our family and friends. That was the goal. It's best to drink it with a (reusable) straw, tasting the ube milk first, then mixing it with the espresso after a few sips.

The Filipino features Ube in a way that feels authentic of the family behind Obet & Dels Coffee.

Courtesy of Obet & Dels Coffee

What do you hope people feel when they walk through your doors in Thai Town?

Heather: I hope our guests feel taken care of and welcome enough to create in the space, bring their loved ones, bring the one, and, in many cases, feel moved to take care of the space and the community around it. Most days our shop feels like the neighborhood's lobby. We'll know every order in line by heart, and then the next rush will be a line full of travelers. We can make change through every interaction, in every little moment, just by being kind. I'm always preaching glass-half-full language. It matters and makes a difference for the people in our orbit.

Josh: I've sat in every seat and stood at every angle, and I know our space has fueled some interesting projects from each viewpoint. Stacy Adelman, a week-one regular turned friend, wrote her entire play, Natural Selection, at O&D. Things like that happen here all the time, often without us knowing the full story behind someone's project, and it makes me proud and inspired to keep creating. We roast our own coffee, curate our own tea program, offer catering and prints through Copymatic, and make all of our food in-house with good ingredients, often from local farmers' markets. We're going to be here for a very long time, and our growth is because the community keeps supporting us.

Next-gen quality check! Josh and his daughter, Sunny, inspect their house-roasted coffee to make sure every bag meets their highest standards.

Explore more from Obet & Dels Coffee 

Experience the artistry of 'The Filipino latte' for yourself by visiting Obet & Del's in Hollywood or Highland Park.

What's your L.A. Cup story?

Do you know an L.A. beverage crafter who lovingly connects to your community? Do you want to share your favorite experience at Obet & Dels Coffee? Join the conversation by tagging @NHMLA with #LACultureinaCup, and your story could be featured next!

The menu by the store's door is painted on a piece of the building's original glass.