Can we get an Alternative Cafe in Encino?

You know, the kind they have in Silverlake or North Hollywood or Santa Monica/Venice? Big sprawling places where meals are inexpensive, there’s tons of tables and a lot of greenery and more than a few tattoos and spiky hair among the customers. You know, alternative.

Something that actually attracts people in their Twenties to Encino, especially students. That’s a vanishing demographic because Encino offers them no reason to be here. Somewhere that mothers with strollers can feel comfortable meeting their friends. Somewhere that vegetarians, artists and designers can feel at home. Where do they go now? Not here.

Instead, all we get are expensive restaurants, many of whom cannot be making their rent, or smaller sandwich/sushi places, or old-fashioned delis, or coffee shops fighting over whether or not to offer free Wifi. The closest we get is Coral Tree but we can do better.

Evidently the new trend is wine/tapas bars and before that it was hookah bars. But in appealing only to an upscale ethnic clientele, aspiring restaurateurs are missing an opportunity.