Hometown Pride: Quaint Covina offers local flavor, suburban charm

In this edition of Hometown Pride, we’re on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, discovering the allure of one of the San Gabriel Valley’s quaintest gems—Covina.

An orange grove town turned bedroom community only 22 miles from downtown L.A., it still retains its suburban charm.

The small town’s slogan: “One mile square and all there.”

Covina is smaller and older than its neighbor West Covina. To the south, the San Jose Hills — to the north, the mighty San Gabriels.

Along Citrus Avenue, shops and restaurants make up the downtown in buildings with rich architectural detail from the early 1900s.

Grab lunch like a local, browse items with interesting provenance, or pop over to Powell Camera, where you can get a vintage lens and have some analog film developed. You must, though, meet the employee of the month—six years running. Krypto is the chillest shop dog whose customer service is mostly feedback in the form of wags.

Downtown, you’ll also find another outpost of SoCal’s Rad Coffee, which is indeed very rad. They say it’s about blending skate culture with spooky drinks. The husband and wife-owned shop is keeping Covina amped from 6 a.m. to midnight. The coffee is strong, the space is vibey, and in the back — a pinball pop-up, where the wizards go at it until the wee hours of the night.

“Covina is a very unique place, and people in this town take care of each other. We have locals that live in Covina that come every day, so it’s a big piece of rad history,” said Jade Valore, co-owner of Rad Coffee.

Covina and West Covina have a fun history. In the early 20th century, the growing Covina had to figure out what to do with their sewage, so they bought a bunch of land west of town. The people who lived there didn’t love that, so they banded together to create their own town and called it West Covina. Eventually, they worked out their differences.

At one point, Covina was the third-largest producer of oranges in the country, but since has transitioned more into a place for families.

Small-town staples include a very cool guitar shop, where you might see the next Donna Fargo — she lived here. Or check out sweet models at the Covina Hobby Shop; you gotta love local places with character and characters.

And if it’s flavor you want, you can’t beat smoking all those meats at Domestic BBQ. Husband and wife-owned, Milton Arredondo and Erika Herrera’s Covina outpost is slinging brisket, ribs, burgers and plates all day.

“You see it every day that we have service, people come into the doors and just enjoy our food, enjoy our hospitality. It’s just great to have that small-town feel to it,” Arredondo said.

“We are actually trailblazing California style barbecue,” Herrera said. “We’re Angelenos, born and raised here. We take influence from everyone else, whether it be Texas, Kansas City and we kind of incorporate it and make it our own.”

Domestic is a personal favorite of KTLA’s own Bobby Gonzalez.

As we get closer to the holidays, Covina’s downtown is going all out with the decorations.

You can double down on the cozy with a brew by the fire at Campsite Brewing Company, another husband and wife-owned project.

The huge undertaking transformed a 1920s warehouse into a mountain campside retreat, complete with expansive decks, giant evergreens and so many fire pits.

People show up for the dozens of brews, done right here, and a delicious and hearty food menu perfect for a pint. The pub burger, grilled, thick and hearty, finished in the salamander for that melty cheese. And how can’t you love it—there’s an actual room they call the Train Room, with views of the passing… trains.

“We wanted to create our business for the community, for our employees, for our guests, for people to come gather and really enjoy themselves,” said Kate Hartenstein, who owns Campsite with her husband Christian. “So finding a community like Covina was just perfect for our goal of being very family-oriented, very down to earth. Connected to nature—the mountains are in the background, but also we find people really come together here, and that’s what we wanted to do.”

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