Ally Walsh, the co-founder of Canyon Coffee, cried the first time she saw the house where she now lives in Mount Washington, Los Angeles.

It was October 2025. That January, she and her son, Sonny, had evacuated their home in Altadena, Calif., as the Eaton fires swept the region. Walsh's mother died soon after. She and Sonny spent much of 2025 living between more than a dozen places as Walsh was grieving.

Finding her current home -- an airy, light-filled house set high up on a hill -- was grounding. "It was a whole new start, and that's what it felt like I needed," Walsh said.

Amid it all, she continued to run Canyon Coffee, the coffee roaster and cafe business Walsh co-founded with Casey Wojtalewicz in 2016. It has shops in Echo Park, Los Angeles and Prospect Heights, Brooklyn -- one of the many places in New York City that has become as known for its lines as it has for its menu. Walsh said that the Prospect Heights cafe receives roughly one order per minute during business hours. Another Los Angeles location is set to open in El Sereno this month.

Since settling down, Walsh has taken comfort in routines. She makes the same black coffee, weighed out to the gram, each morning. She serves her son, now 5, their favorite broiled salmon recipe a few times a week. Every day she has almond-butter toast, a snack her mom would make for her, which is now among the items people line up for at Canyon's cafes.

Here, she shares the bakeries and markets where she stocks up on pantry staples and the secrets to her almond-butter toast and homemade pesto.

For the toast I eat every day: I use spelt polenta bread from Bub's and a polenta Pullman loaf from She-Wolf Bakery, at Canyon and at home. Thick slices. I never mix it up. The most delicious almond butter is Allison's Organics almond butter. Then a little bit of salt, a little bit of olive oil -- I like to use Shear Rock Farms. It's a small-batch olive oil produced in California.

I make drip coffee using: a scale and a Moccamaster. I weigh 30 grams of beans and then I grind them. I make a small pot at home and drink about a cup and a half, then I'll have one at the shop. Sometimes if I'm with friends or on vacation, they're like, "Oh, Ally, you make the coffee." If there's no scale, I'm a little stripped.

My fridge is always stocked with: eggs, greens, a lot of Spindrift sparkling water, lemons. I work right next to Cookbook Market in Los Angeles, so I go there often, and to McCall's Meat & Fish Co. for fish. I have a whole section in my fridge for film.

Moving around, I've learned that: you just need a few good things in the kitchen. I have a Zwilling nonstick pan I use for eggs, pancakes, reheating, leftovers. Nothing too glamorous, but it's reliable. I use a Copco enamel pot I got on eBay for rice and soups. I don't have a can opener yet. I splurged on a Vitamix. I use it constantly for smoothies and soups or pesto.

To keep pesto interesting: we'll switch between pine nuts and cashews. I do a lot of basil oil, a little bit of garlic, a little bit of lemon juice. If I'm really feeling it, I'll sauté spinach and kale and put it in there.

The cookbooks I always turn to are: "Carter's Cookbook" by Carter Were. It's really simple -- smoothies and a lot of good pasta dishes. I love how personal and unpretentious it feels. Andy Baraghani's "The Cook You Want to Be" -- I love his approach to food, everything is always so flavorful and ingredient-driven. And Mina Stone's "Cooking for Artists." I'm not much of a baker, but there's an olive oil cake in there that's really, really good.

My cooking philosophy comes from: my grandpa, and living on my own at such an early age. I was 18 or 19 and modeling. It brought me all over the world. I loved living in Milan. I would go to the farmers markets and the ingredients were so good. I think that's where I had my first coffee too, a cappuccino.