When I don’t feel like making coffee, I head to AOSA in the Huntington Harbour center. Now I have another reason to go. There’s now ice cream and until last week, the shop closed at 2 p.m. It now runs 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.
The longer afternoon arrived with Fosselman’s Ice Cream, a local creamery down the road in Alhambra. AOSA owner Mike Hill knew of my weakness for ice cream and told me I should grab a scoop. If you live on the Harbour side of Huntington Beach, you might know the place by its regulars before you know its name. Just about every week for the last ten years I’ve stopped by to chat with friends and neighbors.
Fosselman’s Ice Cream at AOSA
Fosselman’s Ice Cream Co. is a third-generation family business. Brothers John and Chris Fosselman run it from the Alhambra shop and production room the family has kept on Main Street since 1941. Their grandfather, Christian Fosselman, started making ice cream in Waverly, Iowa, and the family has been at it for more than 100 years. The company sells wholesale to coffee shops and restaurants across Southern California. At AOSA it is now in the case, by the scoop.
First, the name. It’s pronounced ay-OH-suh, and it stands for the Art of Sustainable Action. The café grew out of AOSA Image, a print and design shop that moved into the Huntington Harbour center and wanted a storefront that would pull the neighborhood together. When OC Weekly stopped by in June 2014, the café was “98% finished.” AOSA’s Toby Keil described the goal as a place “where people would show up as strangers, and leave as neighbors or friends.”
A decade later, the shop’s website still talks that way. It calls AOSA a community hub and “a welcoming home for local artists, entrepreneurs, and dreamers.” It signs off with a line that could hang over the register: “Come for the coffee. Stay for the people.” The extra two hours give that line a little more room.
What’s in the cup
The menu reads like it was written by people who care about ratios. The website lists the espresso as a single-origin Brazil, pulled as a 2-ounce shot and built up from there. A macchiato gets a dot of foam. A cortado gets 2 ounces of steamed milk. A latte gets 12. Cold brew steeps for more than 21 hours, and there’s a hand-brewed pour-over if you want to slow down.
The fun starts with the house specialty drinks. The El Tri is espresso with housemade tres leches milk. The Cookie Jar mixes espresso, cookie butter and milk. The Einspanner comes topped with housemade cold foam and cocoa powder. Not on espresso? There’s matcha, organic chai and a lineup of yerba maté drinks. The maté latte comes with lavender and your choice of alternative milk.
What’s in the bowl
Açaí is the other half of AOSA’s identity, and the website gives the bowls equal billing with the coffee. They come in 9-, 12- and 16-ounce sizes, listed at $10, $13 and $15. You can go classic with bananas, blueberries and strawberries. Peanut Butter Bliss adds peanut or almond butter and chocolate, and a coconut version adds vanilla coconut sorbet. Toppings run from granola and coconut shreds to Nutella and honey. If you’re hungry for something savory, the avocado toast uses a housemade avo spread with tomato, micro-greens and cracked pepper, and there’s a seasonal version too.
A new neighbor
The center got a little busier this summer. Tacos Madre Mexican Cocina, the Costa Mesa spot known for its handmade tortillas, now has a Huntington Beach location in the same center at Suite 103. August reviews describe it as newly opened, and its listing shows it opening at 11 a.m. daily. So you can get an afternoon cold brew at one door and tacos at the next.
Beach Street take
AOSA isn’t flashy, and that’s the point. It’s a neighborhood counter with a decade of history, a menu that takes coffee seriously, and a close that finally lands after the school run. It’s the kind of place where a quick latte, or a scoop, can turn into an hour at a table. Bring a book, a friend or a laptop.
If you go
AOSA Coffee, 16821 Algonquin St., Suite 104, Huntington Beach, CA 92649. Hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends, two hours past the 2 p.m. close it kept until last week. Order ahead at aosacoffee.com or follow @aosacoffee on Instagram.