Café Noir began its life as a newspaper humor column. It’s what you get when you mix Casablanca with Raymond Chandler and the absurdist sensibilities of Police Squad.

Jacqueline “Jake” Manley is our modern Los Angeles expat who runs Jake’s Coffee Bar, just across the ‘border’ in Koreatown. She narrates her life like a Philip Marlowe novel, but instead of Maltese Falcons and letters of transit, she contends with wellness cults, magical monkey coffee, gig-economy Santas, a bevy of femme fatale exes and the occasional deep fake scandal. She handles them all with hard-boiled wit, caffeinated sarcasm and a surprising amount of heart. All the while arguing with her writers, and breaking the fourth wall to let us in on the joke. She’s a gal who’s been around and knows the score. Until she doesn’t. Forget it, Jake. It’s Koreatown.