Neighbors Rankled by Closing of Coffee Spot

The coffee talk is over at La Conversation.

After 17 years and countless croissants, this small neighborhood coffeehouse and bakery in Los Feliz closed its doors Sunday. As they savored their last afternoon at the shop, a band of distraught Felizians sat wondering aloud about where their community was heading and, maybe more importantly, where they would now find good conversation and cappuccino.

“This is so depressing,� said Murielle Uretsky with genuine pain in her voice. “We’ve lost our home, our second home.�

But those who frequent this institution were unwilling to just dab their eyes and let La Conversation pass quietly into Los Feliz lore..

“Steve and Michael,� read one note addressed to La Conversation’s owners, “I am in shock about your decision to close. I would feel better if I knew that you were taking care of the people who took care of your business.�

“We hope . . . you will reconsider this awful stupid decision since we are totally depressed and disgusted,� read another.

It seemed clear Sunday that the current running beneath the anger was fear that La Conversation’s demise is another sign that Los Feliz is in danger of falling victim to its own hipness.

“I’m afraid of our being Old Pasadena-ized,� said Caroline Dewald, a longtime La Conversation customer. “The people who made Old Pasadena distinctive can’t afford to be there any more. That hasn’t happened here yet, but it’s sad to think that it might.�

For years Los Feliz has served as a comfortable, low-rent haven for Los Angeles families, artists and writers. Many of them frequented La Conversation, and the bakery developed a strong, mostly local, core clientele. But, as in other once-unique Los Angeles neighborhoods, the signs of encroaching gentrification abound.

La Conversation co-owner Steve Carson said his shop has lost money for six months, ever since a chain coffee shop opened down the street. Add to that rent increases because of the area’s increasing popularity, and Carson said he had no real option but to focus his efforts on another establishment he runs in West Hollywood.

But those explanations did little to soothe La Conversation’s more rabid devotees.

“It’s sick, it’s really twisted,� said Tina Dilley. “He sold his soul to the Westside.�

For Dilley and the raucous clan sitting with her, no capitulation to the pressures threatening to change Los Feliz is acceptable. Many of Sunday’s patrons have congregated often at La Conversation for well over a decade. They say countless friendships, and even some love affairs, have begun over cups of coffee here.

And customers unanimously profess undying love for the two women who run the shop on a day-to-day basis, Ala Mazloumian and her sister, Jackie Beiruti.

The two, who have worked the counters for 12 and six years, respectively, fretted about their futures as they handed out the last two croissants to a visitor.

“It’s going to be very hard to get a job, and I’m going to miss the family I have here,� Mazloumian said with red-rimmed eyes.