Cool Down in Montrose: Iced Coffee, Roseade & Açaí

Summer in the foothills has a particular kind of heat — dry, bright, and best met with something cold and a shaded seat. We're a family café up in Montrose (the northern corner of Glendale, tucked against the San Gabriels), and this is the season our cold menu earns its keep. Here's what we'd pour you if you walked in on a July afternoon — and why the patio is the move.

Start with the cold coffee

Our espresso is Stumptown Hairbender, and it takes to ice beautifully:

• Cold Brew — $6.25. Hairbender, cold-steeped a full 24 hours, so it's low-acid and smooth over ice. A 16-oz pour that lasts.
• The iced Coffee Flight — $17. Our signature, and honestly the most fun way to beat the heat: cold brew, vanilla latte, mocha latte, and a caramel macchiato, side by side, with four shots of espresso running through them. Bring a friend and split the tasting.

The Roseade situation

If you've been to Toasted, you already know about the Roseade ($5.25) — our house rose-water lemonade, floral and just-sweet-enough. It's the drink our regulars name first, and one reviewer put it best: “refreshingly sweet and light.” Not a rose person? The Arnold Palmer ($4, half iced tea / half lemonade) has its own loyal following, and there's a whole Lemonade Flight ($17) if you want to make a tasting of it. There's even a Rosewater Flight ($17) — Roseade, a rosewater latte, and rose iced tea, four ways.

Eat something cold, too: the açaí bowls

When it's too hot for a hot plate, this is our answer. The Açaí & Bowls corner of the menu is built for summer:

• Açaí Bowl — $18.75. Açaí, almond butter, granola, and seasonal fruit. A proper meal, not a snack.
• Açaí Plate — $14.50. Açaí sorbet, a seasonal fruit medley, granola, almond butter, and honey — lighter, shareable, and cold all the way down.

Both are vegetarian, both are the kind of thing you want at 2 PM when the sun's doing the most.

Why the patio wins in July

Here's the part that makes a Toasted summer afternoon different from grabbing a drink to go:

• Shade and a breeze. Our Honolulu Avenue patio is dog-friendly, so the whole family — the four-legged one included — gets a seat.
• We stay open late. When the rest of the foothills closes around 3, we're open till 7 PM Friday through Sunday — so the golden-hour iced coffee is entirely possible.
• Free Wi-Fi and outlets if the AC at home gave up and you need somewhere cool to work. Weekday mornings are the calmest stretch.

Come cool off

You'll find us at 2420 Honolulu Ave, Montrose, in the Glendale foothills — free street parking, a city lot a block away, and a Roseade with your name on it. See the full coffee list and menu, or plan a whole foothills day with our visitor's guide. And if you'd rather celebrate something — a birthday in the cool of the afternoon works beautifully too. Stay a while. We saved you the shady table.