M Street Coffee

Part art gallery, but mostly coffee shop, M Street Coffee serves as the neighborhood meeting spot for Sherman Oaks' denizens and Valley creatives. A standard coffee and tea menu is offered (their Caramel Royale is the way to go when looking for a little indulgence), but the range of milk options is as varied as the dairy section at Whole Foods: soy, rice, almond and more. Gluten-free snacks are on hand as well, and a great selection of pastries (we recommend the banana bread—toasted!—with a thin slathering of butter). Settle into the couch or find an open table, where you'll likely be surrounded by regulars: a cartoonist who might draw a sketch of you if you ask, a screenwriter working on her next feature, a woman who makes her own flower crowns and hats. Oh, and the cutest kids in the neighborhood, who are fawned over by the staff and who will likely have their first cup of coffee at M Street.