Cafe Tropical’s purple facade. (Courtesy of Cafe Tropical)
FOR HALF A CENTURY, the friendly facade of Silver Lake’s Cafe Tropical rose up at the corner of Sunset and Silver Lake boulevards, its pastel purple exterior and delicious Cuban coffee and pastries welcoming neighbors, tourists, and thousands of Angelenos seeking sobriety at the 12-step meetings held in its back room.
When the cafe abruptly closed in November of 2023, people across the city mourned. As a story of debt and family conflict on the part of a previous owner tumbled into public view, a community eager to protect its Cubano clubhouse sprang into action, raising $11,895 for the employees laid off on short notice.
Then in early 2024, three regulars — Ed Cornell, Danny Khorunzhiy, and Rene Navarrette — stepped up to save Cafe Tropical: they bought the business, revamped the menu (while preserving the classics), and rehired most of the staff.
The cafe's new model has allowed for innovation. The kitchen has welcomed outside chefs for a slew of collaborations and pop-ups, the back room — known to host recovery meetings for more than 30 years — has expanded its schedule, and the team responded to the 2025 fires by partnering with Feed the Streets to provide relief aid to those affected.
Cornell, co-owner and executive chef, takes us inside the day-to-day details of Cafe Tropical, answering our The Receipts Questionnaire over email. Answers have been condensed very slightly for space and clarity.
Name of Restaurant
Cafe Tropical
Neighborhood
Silver Lake
Opening Date
Mid 1975. From what I can tell, there’s been about five owners over the past 50 years. Opened by two brothers, Aurelio and Evelio, as a bakery and ice cream shop — it changed hands multiple times. Once it was sold for $1.00. There wasn’t a long line of people waiting around to run it. The owner before us had some debt on their hands, and it hadn’t done very well for a few years revenue-wise.
In 2024, Danny, who’s now my partner, approached me when I was cooking pizza up the street at Quarter Sheets and asked if I wanted to try and buy the cafe down Sunset. I told him it was at best a bad idea, but I was in.
Operating Hours
Tues – Sunday, 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Friday & Saturday coffee service stays open until 10 p.m.
Style of Service
Counter service
# of Employees
About 20
Typical Covers (Guests) Per Day
200-250 on the average weekday, 300+ on the average weekend
Most Profitable Item on Menu
The answer is probably just a drip coffee. I know that’s not very exciting.
I’m not sure how specific labor factors into the cost of goods for every one of our menu items, so I won’t pretend they all cost the same based on workload (which is of course not true). We make all the puff pastry and croissant dough inhouse which is obviously a horrible idea so it’s definitely not those items.
(Courtesy of Cafe Tropical)
I try to just make sure that we don’t run over 20 percent cost of goods on anything in the cafe — I price everything around there. Egg and avocado prices came back down this year which has helped a lot.
Least Profitable Item on Menu
Probably our $10 breakfast sandwich. The human spreadsheet part of me was going to make us put less bacon on it but I just didn’t have the heart.
Most Popular Item on Menu
Drink: Cafe con Leche (latte)
Food: Our $10 breakfast sandwich: bacon, egg, and cheese on coco bread
Pastry: Guava cheese
Slowest Day of the Week
Wednesday. We do on average about 10 less covers on that day but also the average customer spend is $.50 less than the next slowest day, and about $3 less than our busiest day.
Busiest Day of the Week
Saturday by revenue, Sunday by average ticket.
Tipping Structure
Even Split Pool
Annual Revenue
We will probably do $1.6M.
The meeting room (where 12-step and other meetings have been held for decades) is a part of our lease and we do generate 0.2% of our income from small fees the meetings pay to use the space. It amounts to $2k – 3k a month or so.
Annual Overhead Costs
(What percentage of your revenue goes to the following categories?)
Rent: approx 12 percent. We pay about $15,500/month
Payroll: approx 42 percent.
Food & Bev: approx 20 percent across food and bev
Insurance: about $400/mo
Subscriptions (Resy, Squarespace, POS, etc): After including the price per transaction and the CC processing fees together it’s about 3.5% of our total revenue
Repairs and Maintenance: Yikes, the business is 50 years old and we’ve had to do a lot since we took it over, looking at this number will make me feel bad I’d rather not
Net Annual Profit
$150,000.
This has the cost of some “What the f*ck” expenses taken out, but if more than the regular amount of WTF expenses, we will net slightly less.
Do you deliver? If so, what systems do you use?
Not directly to the consumer. We deliver pastries to a few partners like Companion, Bridgetown Roti, Comet over Delphi and some other cafes.
What did your raising process look like upon opening? Did you take on investment or loans?
We took on a medium-sized group of small investors, by selling $25,000 tranches. Most of the money raised in the investment paid off debt of the previous owner or went directly into improving the space. With a small amount left over for cash flow, I think it was $400,000 in total.
What’s a creative idea that’s worked for you financially? (Ex: running specials, signing up for a delivery or reservation app, offering live music, hosting pop-ups, etc.)
I truly believe there are a bunch of creative ideas that can make running your business more interesting or fun. We’ve hosted lots of pop-ups, we run specials, and maybe one third of those things provide a slight financial bump, but most break even or lose a small amount of money based on the cost, time, and effort. I don’t think that means don’t do them — if you have the energy, do whatever you can or want.
As unexciting as it sounds, I don't think anything will ever beat the basic idea of being a place people in your neighborhood want to come to once or twice a week and operating at a healthy marginal cost.
Vanessa Anderson is a writer, culinary anthropologist, and the voice behind Grocery Goblin, a project that examines American culinary and consumer culture through the lens of the grocery store.
