Touring Downtown WIFI: Starbucks
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
The Starbucks at 11th and Grand -- despite its missing outdoor furniture -- is one of Downtown's best WIFI hangouts.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — This is the first in a series of stories taking a tour of Downtown's WIFI spots. Whether at coffee shops or Pershing Square, there are plenty of options -- some better than others. Learn a new spot or help out your neighbors by sharing your favorites.
Given the number of Starbucks locations around Downtown, it seems only appropriate to start out a series on WIFI spots by taking a look at the 800-pound gorilla of the coffee industry.
OVERALL PROS: You know what you're getting. It's Starbucks.
OVERALL CONS: WIFI access is paid, but there are ways to get free access. Many AT&T DSL customers can get onto WIFI points for free, and a registered Starbucks card entitles one to two hours of daily free access.
While Starbucks has locations across Downtown, some make for better hangouts than others. Here's a rundown of some of the ones better suited for the officeless laptop-user.
11th & Grand: The Starbucks at Elleven is the neighborhood's coffee shop. Laptops abound, as do regulars. Four outlets located around the space mean that your odds of finding an outlet are pretty good.
5th & Figueroa: This little Starbucks juts out of the Union Bank Plaza on the west side of Figueroa. It's tiny -- perhaps a dozen seats total, but there's one pair of outlets and it's kind of cool looking out over traffic on Fig.
7th & Figueroa: The Starbucks at 7+Fig is small and crowded, but has a couple outlets and makes for a good power spot in a pinch. The complex itself has free WIFI (which we'll cover later), so you may have better options nearby.
2nd & Central: Over in Little Tokyo, this spot next to Office Depot is large and open late.
Eric Richardson writes:
standarddtla
DragoCentro
I think there's another Starbucks at the corner of 1st and Los Angeles. I'm not sure about number of outlets but it's usually quiet inside.