The ice blended cappuccino at Placita Cafe is the best brainfreeze-inducing drink I have ever sipped. It’s a caffeinated dessert, with a rolled wafer cookie popping out of the mountain of cinnamon-dusted whipped cream that tops it. Crucially, it’s properly blended, so you get the appropriate balance of textures and flavors all the way down to the bottom of the plastic cup.
I’ve tried a lot of ice blendeds, including the made-for-the-algorithm variety that influencers and self-proclaimed foodies seem to love. What I’ve learned, though, is that the prettier an ice blended is, the worse it tastes. In fact, a few of those more photogenic ice blendeds have given me COVID anosmia flashbacks. Why is this so blah? I’ve wondered before realizing that all the flavor was in the first slurp, y’know, the one that influencers take as they mug for the camera, right before they push the drink aside and reach for the next freebie. With the Placita Cafe ice blended, though, the cinnamon hits my nose before I put the straw up to my mouth. In each sip, I feel the icy, creamy and liquid textures intermingle and taste the milk and espresso base.
Maybe you’ve had the ice blended cappuccino at Placita Cafe too. I’m going to bet, though, that most of the people who click on this story have never even heard of the place. It’s a tiny restaurant right behind the notoriously expensive gas station on Cesar Chavez and Alameda that MAGA bots like to cite as the reason why California sucks. Placita Cafe is always busy, but it also seats, maybe, eight people comfortably. The restaurant has a heaving menu, affordable prices, incredibly nice staff and some solid Yelp reviews, but not much in the way of mouth-watering videos, which seems to be all that matters in the 2020s. If you’re in the vicinity of Union Station, check it out. If you’re not, though, don’t worry about it. There’s probably a place by you that makes a damn good ice blended something or other.
This isn’t really a post about the best ice blended in Los Angeles, but I think that is a useful analogy for how the attention economy has changed the way we see the world. You’ll side-eye a recommendation from someone you know and trust. “But is it good?” you ask with skepticism, as if your friend would send you to a shithole. Yet, you’ll travel to all ends of Los Angeles and stand in an hours-long line for a mid product recommended by any photogenic stranger the algorithm sent your way. Then you’ll hype the thing to everyone you know just so that you don’t look like a sucker. Your friends will probably do the same thing, not because of your recommendation, but because Erewhon/Labubu/Dubai Chocolate finally overwhelmed their timeline as well.
For the record, I’m no better than others at resisting viral allure. Last year, I finally tried a Dubai Chocolate bar because it was on sale at Super King. It wasn’t worth the half-off price. It also really wasn’t worth the shame I felt for being a Middle Eastern person who succumbed to a white-washed version of kadayif. Once, I drank an Erewhon juice because I was at an event where it was free. It was pretty good, which is not the same as splurge-price good. I’ve also browsed enough stores, and spent enough money on blind boxes over the years, to say that Labubu are kind of cute, but they aren’t the most interesting characters around. Every time something like this happens, I’m reminded that viral never lives up to the hype and I think about what we’re missing.
In Dune, there’s a Bene Gesserit saying, “If you rely only on your eyes, your other senses weaken.” I think that’s what has been happening to us and, frankly, it’s getting worse. We’re not just relying solely on our eyes, but on mediated images that are designed to capture an algorithm and function as covert commercials. Every time these trending clip loops take over our feeds, it builds a level of hype that reality will never match, even when the IRL version is excellent. Ultimately, we’re faced with constant disappointment because the restaurant meal doesn’t resemble food porn, the club isn’t a vibe as soon as the doors open, nature isn’t picturesque and the big city destination isn’t cute.
Somewhere between 2010 and 2020, we started to forget how to use all of our senses. It doesn’t matter how pretty the food is if it doesn’t taste good, nor does it matter if the function is packed when you’re stuck listening to a remixed wedding reception playlist all night. We just convinced ourselves that this was the good life so that we wouldn’t look as outdated as a 20th century phone.
Then, in the midst of the pandemic, we forgot how to live altogether. Going out into nature isn’t supposed to be about capturing the perfect selfie. It’s about using all of your available senses to connect with the living world around you in a way that’s personal. As for big cities, they’re never going to be cute or charming. They’re dirty. They smell. They are filled with annoying people. But, that’s also part of the allure. Cities are beautiful and ugly, exciting and frustrating, a whole list of juxtapositions that don’t quite translate on Instagram, but might make sense to people who still watch movies and read books.
In part, it’s the contradictions of downtown life that make that Placita Cafe ice blended taste so damn good. It’s a great concoction, but it’s also a reasonably priced concoction one I order from unassuming spot, practically hidden by the overpriced gas station in front of it. I’ll stand in line, not with influencers, but with people who live or work in the neighborhood. The cinnamon dust that I inhale clears my nose of the rancid, pissy odor I caught by the train station moments earlier and thought I would never unsmell. The ice cold drink keeps me chill as I walk home along streets sorely lacking in shade (and trash cans, and public bathrooms). It’s this very ordinary, accessible thing that can make an afternoon so much better and, I think, that’s what we risk losing in a world dominated by omnipresent viral marketing.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Follow on Instagram or sign up for the weekly, Beatique newsletter for updates on new stories and gigs.
Listen to the Beatique Mix for July, 2026, featuring music from Madonna, Tomora, Basement Jaxx, Saint Etienne and more.
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