Catalina Coffee Co   

With its tasteful furnishings, warm lighting and stylish accents, this South Bay venue looks very much like one of the upscale, comfortable houses along the nearby Strand. Funky vintage armchairs and a welcoming couch surround a stone fireplace, and the smell of fresh-baked pastries and roasting coffee beans wafts on the air. In the library, hundreds of second-hand mystery books fill the shelves from wall to wall. Computers with Internet access are available, and board games are on hand for folks who don't want to read or browse the Web. Clientele tends to be more mature than at the average coffee house, except on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, when story hour attracts the very youngest of patrons. Part of the reason that this place draws a different crowd than the standard coffee house is its superb food; ingredients are of a very high quality, and everything's made fresh, from the soup of the day to the chicken curry salad to the house-smoked salmon. Gourmet sandwiches are a specialty; the roast beef comes from Manhattan Meats, the turkey is carved in-house, and the three-cheese sandwich is a vegetarian's delight. -- Lena Katz