Brentwood, California.

Situated in the northwest corner of Los Angeles, it's a ray of white tablecloth restaurants and

high-end boutiques speaks to its position as one of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods.

But this Tory enclave of mansions for celebrities and entertainment executives, as well as luxury

apartments for status seekers, became best known as the site of the O.J. Simpson murders,

in which the football and movie star would stand accused of murdering his ex-wife and

her waiter friend.

In the double homicide and subsequent trials that would dominate the national news during

the mid-90s, Simpson would be acquitted criminally but found liable civilly, a verdict that

bankrupted him and forced him to sell his beloved Brentwood estate on Rockingham Avenue.

The house was bulldozed and new mansion built in its place, the land too valuable to be

left unoccupied by some LA millionaire.

But three decades prior to O.J.'s murder case, ignobly elevating a neighborhood that formerly

boasted privacy for its elite residents, Herbert Heimann chose Brentwood as the site of

his first gourmet coffee shop.

While Americans were avid coffee consumers, it was mostly of a low-end drip or diner variety,

and Heimann's gourmet roasted premium blends were hit with the upper-class eager for an

outlet for their disposable income.

By the 70s, Heimann had coffee shops throughout the Southland, so successful as his business

in California that, in 1991, another coffee chain attempted to purchase it.

Starbucks.

For better or worse, Heimann declined and the brand continues to operate and expand

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