Yo, it’s Noah. Never been one to talk about myself or my journey unless it was contextual, so here goes a jumble of thoughts, words and timelines.

We started One Cedar on a whim - a complete on-tilt search for commercial spaces after a consulting project fell through and I felt my time was wasted… and I just couldn’t have that. I have always advised businesses and friends to start based on prime location, the rest falls into place. Forcing something as a pop-up, taking over the shell of an old space, being a part of a saturated area - it works, but it has a quicker death date than something that is curated out of fate. The house of One Cedar presented itself and I accepted the responsibility of the literal open door. I saw the future of the space for bringing amazing beverages of all kinds (specifically coffee) to a wonderful neighborhood that was neglected so heavily for communal food and beverage spaces. Whatever we do, it’s for the people and that’s all that matters.

To add fuel to the fire, I was also sick of the rinse and repeat coffee concepts around the city diluting Los Angeles and SoCal as a whole. Perfect edges, copycat concepts, coffee fads, mediocre menus, lack of consistency and price gouging - it all became less and less about hospitable experiences. I wanted to give my all to my own space to bring back a genuine want to be a consumer again. I wanted to show up every day and be proud of a spot that is built on trust and real community. I wanted to curate a community that wants to make us part of their day, more so their life.

10 years ago, I had the opportunity to be adopted into this industry by a real hustler and I have found myself never being able to wander from behind a bar, specifically coffee bars. For that, I thank that hustler - te amo Gabe, sin ti no existo.

I had worked in the Inland Empire at Restoration Roasters with Gabe while I was in high school and quickly moved onto managing a shop in Chino Hills. After leaving there, I wanted to venture into higher volume and deeper specialty so Kristy gave me the opportunity at Portola - right at the peak of their volume which was crushing $12-15k a day on coffee and tea alone. This was also right around the time Tohm was perfecting Theorem before starting Dayglow (rip Neon). It was a time to be alive for this that’s forsure. The Portola era had to come to an end eventually, but with new blossom and I ended up finding myself back in the Inland Empire managing Lift Coffee as a company - I was 19. Yikes lol.

I learned a lot, too much honestly. I spent 2 years of my life reforming and rebuilding Lift while furthering my love for coffee. Thank you Leeba for investing your time into me, it set me up for my next chapter. May you rest in peace forever. After my exit from Lift, I was approached to build and eventually co-own a space in Sawtelle. I ended up moving to LA to pursue this journey and through the pandemic, emerged as one of the most successful solo venture coffee shops I have seen to day. Unfortunately, the place isn’t even worth mentioning for so many reasons and was the catalyst that sent me to change my direction of work completely for a few years.

I worked at Menotti’s for a bit before venturing into the bar life which helped me develop a completely different vision for drinks and how they should be built. It reframed my mind in how to be intentional with diversity and in my own way, brought that mental shift to my old coffee self. I twisted and remixed my old self with the new and knew what had to be done. From barbacking, to bartending, to bar managing - it all had a role in what One Cedar needed to be.

During this mental shift, I had the opportunity to work alongside of Nicely. There was something revitalizing about barbacking for someone I had copied latte art wise (as best I could) and had been adjacent to for so long, but had no deep interaction with. The start of Hooked and playing my position as needed was just enough to reignite the fire in me to want to add a communal pillar of my own. Nicely, I love you big dog, thank you for indirectly creating the phoenix.

Full circle moment, Gabe ends up coming to the Westside to copy me ;) and starts the iconic Flo Coffee Bar on Hampton. I picked up the call to work with him one last time and damn, that was a throwback. Shoutout to TikTok for blowing my boy up, he deserved it all.