Claire de Lune

Claire de Lune has been a favorite for a long time! This is one of two coffeehouses I practically lived at in college. Good thing they have good drinks, smoothies and food! This one is located in North Park on University Ave. On the main floor there are mostly couches and lounge chairs. Perfect for visiting with friends or doing some sketching. They have a loft which over looks the place and it is really nice to kind of separate yourself from the traffic that goes in and out. There are plenty of outlets on the loft for laptops and lamps for drawing/reading. Sometimes you have to fight for the tables on the loft but other times they are usually open. Saturday nights they always have live music so it gets busy and loud. If you need to get work done I wouldn't recommend going on a Saturday night. BUT if you are looking to get some interesting character sketches you can't miss this place on a Sat night. I have seen everything from belly dancers to homeless guys playing drums on the tables. Never know what you will see at Claire's! Oh and all the people that work there are super friendly!

http://www.clairedelune.com/

Old California Coffehouse

This coffeehouse came recommended by a couple of friends. Finally had a chance to go check it out! This one is located on San Marcos Blvd right in Restaurant Row. The environment is really comfortable, but I feel the seating is kind of limited if you go with more then 2 people. There is one section in the back that can seat 4-6 people, but other then that most of the tables are two seaters. I thought the outlets were scarce, but if you look up there are outlets high on the walls. Took us a while to figure that one out! If you go here for sketching or just lounging they do have a lot of outdoor seating. They have a lot of interesting espresso drinks that I haven't seen anywhere else. They also serve food, all I know is the quiche is pretty good! As for people watching/sketching it is mostly a family and high school crowd. If I wanted to draw kids, older people or sassy teenage girls, this would be a good place to go!



www.oldcalcoffee.com

The Other Side Coffeehouse

In college I used to go to coffeehouse's close to every night. Living in the suburbs of Carlsbad where everything closes at 8:30pm is really making me miss that life style. I don't need to go every night, but going to a coffeehouse to do work, draw, visit with friends, people watch, just get out of my element...is really nice every now and then! I have kind of stuck to my two favorite coffeehouses (The Living Room and Claire De Lune's) So I am on a mission to find more coffeehouses that are good for artists to work at.

Tonight I went to The Other Side with some friends. Unfortunately I was on my computer the whole time, so no sketches to post. Next time I will have to make a point to do even just a couple of people-watching-sketches.

Anyways, I this this coffeehouse is a really great place to go for artists! It is located in North Park (30th and Polk). Not so close for us North County folks, but if you are planing to spend the whole day down there or in the area, I would say its worth the drive. It is a pretty simple layout with plenty of tables to work at and outlets that line the room, which is great for people who work on laptops. One of the most frustrating things is going to a coffeehouse and not finding a place to plug in my laptop! The Other Side has a really laid back feeling, from the friendly workers to the people that go there. Since the walls are covered in art, it creates a very inspiring environment as well. The drinks are average price and aren't too sweet like some places make them. It also has patio seating and a pool table in the back if you want to take a break. Parking kind of sucks though.

http://www.coffeeside.com/