Stroll south down Oak Creek Park in La Mirada, and you’ll eventually see a tree with a small wind chime on your left. Behind it, just beyond the tree’s tallest branches, is what looks like a backyard cafe with a large patio umbrella and homemade wooden furniture.
If you passed by on, say, a Saturday afternoon in June, you would have found every chair and bench occupied by customers who flocked to cozy Dotoree Coffee Roaster and the lovable family who made it one of the most successful home cafes in Los Angeles County.
Today, the backyard is empty, save for Daniel Jung and his wife Sun Park, who both live at the residence — a single family home in a planned development — and who might be spraying down the concrete or making a coffee.
Dotoree is a microenterprise home kitchen operation (MEHKO), licensed by a County Department of Public Health program that allows L.A. residents to run small food businesses out of their homes. MEHKOs were first legalized by state lawmakers in 2019 following advocacy from nonprofit organization The COOK Alliance. L.A. County later opted into the program in May 2024, and since then has approved over 400 licenses.
Jung and Park opened the cafe in April after months of planning the menu, building benches, stools and pyeongsang tables — elevated platforms for outdoor eating and gathering — and creating a concept that customers would resonate with in a city ripe with excellent coffee shops.
“We thought of doing something good in the name of family,” said Jung, who works as a pastor at a local Korean American church.
Jung, who immigrated with Park from Seoul in 2000, first began roasting coffee beans in a pan 10 years ago under the guidance of his brother, who owns a successful coffee roastery in Washington. For Dotoree, he used a Bellwether machine to roast raw green coffee beans from Ethiopia, Brazil and Colombia. He had two signature blends, the Oakwood — named after their street — and the decaf La Mirada Sunset, both of which reached the cup no more than a week after roasting. Some of his most popular drinks were a black sesame latte and an orange con panna, or espresso with orange-infused cream.
Park, who is a gifted home cook, was in charge of the food. The menu was inspired by bakeries in Korea, and featured a banana French toast, tomato toast with sourdough from 6100 Bread in Santa Ana and a “spring garden bagel” with homemade bacon scallion cream cheese.
“I thought, ‘Wow!’ I have been in church ministry for more than 20 years, but I realized good coffee can make people happy, even more than pastors do,” Jung said.
By its second weekend in operation, dozens of customers had found the backyard cafe. Influencers deemed it one of the “coziest spots near Los Angeles” and a “little piece of Korea.” Like many, they were enamored by how an ordinary family’s home had become a small-batch coffee roastery with warm wooden accents and smiley acorn pillows to round out its welcoming aesthetic.
For most cafes — or any for-profit business — attracting customers is generally a good thing. But running a MEHKO isn’t that simple. State and county regulations prohibit such businesses from selling more than 90 meals per week, displaying physical signage on their front lawns to advertise or serving food that was prepared the day prior, even if stored properly.
For quiet Oakwood Lane, Dotoree’s overwhelming success suddenly meant a lot of parked cars.
“There’s a fairly large spot on our street that doesn’t have any houses in front of it — that whole area got filled up,” said Michael Wong, who lives across the street from Jung and Park. “There was a ton of traffic, especially on a Saturday morning.”
Wong said his wife began noticing friends of hers from all over L.A. and Orange County coming to La Mirada. Social media videos would pop up in her feed with clips of her own street. Eventually, some neighbors put “no parking” signs in front of their mailboxes.
One day in June, Jung discovered that one of his customers was the local homeowners association president. He loved the coffee, Jung recalls, and later brought his wife to visit Dotoree. But, according to Jung, the HOA president said neighbors were growing concerned about the street congestion.
A few weeks later, Jung said the HOA called and asked him to shut down Dotoree, citing a law that houses could only be used for purposes of residence. Though Jung contacted the county and was told that he could likely make a case for staying open, he said he ultimately decided it was best to close.
“I could feel it, because when I saw the street — wow, it was full of cars — people were walking with their family, their kids, toward my house,” said Jung, who did not consult the HOA prior to opening Dotoree.
The HOA president did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In the weeks leading up to Dotoree’s closure on June 29, Jung and Park were selling 200 items per day. At that point, three of Jung and Park’s five children were helping prepare food and take care of customers.
“We had meals together after work, and we [would] set up a strategy for tomorrow,” Jung said. “I think that was a very happy moment for all family members.”
Choosing to close was heartbreaking, but necessary, he said. To remain open would have contradicted Dotoree’s ethos. The word is Korean for “acorn,” and in Jung’s eyes, represents something small with the power to grow into a source of nourishment.
“We never imagined this would happen to us, so we were unready,” Jung said. “At the same time, we are very thankful for so many people that loved us, our place.”
Dotoree is one of a handful of MEHKOs across L.A., of which there are hundreds, that have experienced overwhelming success. Granada, a picturesque home cafe in Echo Park that opened in January, was one of the first MEHKOs to go viral.
Co-owner Sydney Wayser recalls one day that month when hundreds of customers showed up on her quiet Angelino Heights street, prompting one neighbor to complain to the County Department of Health. In response, Wayser and her husband and co-owner, Isaac Watters, chose to permanently limit operation to Wednesday through Friday to avoid blowing through the MEHKO sales limit.
The couple initially considered a reservations system to control customer flow, but business eventually regulated.
“A lot of people come who live in the neighborhood, so they just walk here,” Wayser said.
The couple has also taken measures to acknowledge their impact on the neighborhood — they’ll soon be hosting a neighbors-only party at Granada “just to say thanks for putting up with this,” according to Wayser.
For now, the future of Dotoree is uncertain. During the first couple weeks of July, unknowing customers still came to the cafe almost every day. Jung, honored that people drove from as far as La Cañada Flintridge just to visit, insisted on serving them free coffee. He is unsure whether Dotoree will reopen, but is considering a reservation system that would allow no more than 20 customers at a time. In the meantime, he and Park both recently started new jobs and are still searching for a bricks-and-mortar space for Dotoree. The long-term goal, he maintains, is to give their neighbors a cafe that embodies the comfort of home.
“I learned a lot from this,” Jung said. “The most good thing can be dangerous too.”
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