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Last year chef Debbie Lee debuted her long-awaited pocha in Highland Park: Yi Cha, one of L.A.’s best new bars, where Lee serves modern Korean bites that pair with artful cocktails and imported soju. Now she’s opened Mokja, a tandem cafe and market for Korean-leaning coffees, sandwiches, pastries and pantry goods. Enter Mokja through Yi Cha’s back alley and find sweet corn iced lattes, coffees topped with misugaru cold foam, and banana matcha lattes served alongside oxtail hand pies, Seoul-style breakfast plates, gochujang short rib onigiri, tomato-muchim pork belly BLTs, and a DIY ramyun station. In a hurry? Grab Lee’s premade bibimbap, mayak eggs, mandu, japchae and more from the refrigerators. If you’re shopping for your home, find coffee, mochi mixes, ice cream, hot sauce, black sesame spreads and other goods from local makers, plus imported Korean Oreos and chips, on the shelves around the cafe.
