Our story

HIMANSHU & MILANA

It started with her lunch box.
And a really good coffee.

Hi, I’m Himanshu. I’m from Mumbai, and my wife, Milana, is from Bangalore. We both came to the US for higher education in August 2008. We’ve been together ever since.

Himanshu and Milana smiling together outdoors

The coffee that won me over

When we met on campus, Milana would bring home-cooked meals in her lunch box, along with South Indian filter coffee. The first time I tried it, I remember thinking, “Oh, okay. This is special.”

For someone who grew up in Mumbai drinking chai, or “cutting,” as we call it, that was quite an admission.

Milana shared her coffee with friends, too. Soon, everyone wanted to know where they could buy it. The answer? Her family’s farm in Chikkamagaluru. She became our campus coffee celebrity, and we started calling her the “Coffee Baroness.” The name stuck.

Milana harvesting coffee cherries on the family farm — The Coffee Baroness, back on the family farm.

Coffee was part of our life at school. We made friends over it. It was there when we fell in love, and through the arguments, too. Late-night submissions, lazy weekends on the couch, the morning after a night out. Everything felt a little better with a cup.

A visit to the family farm

Being the “special friend” had its perks. I got to visit the farm and meet the people behind the coffee we loved.

Mr Satya Narayan among the coffee plants on the estate — Mr Satya Narayan, the estate manager. He’s been looking after the farm since he was 15.

Milana’s mother with coffee cherries drying on the farm — Milana’s mother, drying coffee cherries on the farm.

And here’s Milana’s father spreading the coffee cherries out to dry.

San Francisco became home

By 2014, we were married, living in San Francisco, and figuring out grown-up life together.

Himanshu and Milana at their wedding celebration

We had jobs now, and good coffee was just as important at work as it had been at school. Our coworkers tried it and started asking for beans of their own. So we brought coffee over from the family farm: a 50-pound bag of ground coffee every year.

We kept wondering why it was so hard to find good specialty coffee from India here in the US. We knew how much there was to share. Eventually, we decided to do something about it.

That’s where Le Mil’s Coffee began.

Handwritten coffee blend notes with roasted beans — Working through the blends, one cup at a time.

Back to the farm, with a plan

In 2022, we spent a lot of time on the family farm. We met local farmers, coffee suppliers, roasters, and just about everyone we could learn from.

After nearly a year of work, we built a supply chain to source AAA-grade coffee beans directly from farmers. We wanted to bring you great coffee and make sure the people growing it were paid well for their crop.

Himanshu and Milana visiting a coffee-growing family

Milana talking with coffee suppliers beside bags of coffee

2024 · ROASTING AT CORO

Our coffee, roasted here

In 2024, we started roasting at CoRo Coffee Room. We’d spent so much time thinking about where our coffee came from. Now we were taking on the roasting ourselves, here in the Bay Area.

For us, it was the next step in bringing Indian coffee to our home in San Francisco.

Himanshu and Milana working together at CoRo Coffee Room

2024 · THE POP-UP DAYS

Taking the coffee out into the neighborhood

That same year, we started running pop-ups at Mainstay Market and Spanglers Market. Our coffee had made its way from Milana’s lunch box to friends and coworkers. Now we were sharing it with people at the markets, too.

We didn’t have a café yet. These pop-ups were our way of getting out there and serving the coffee we’d been talking about for years.

2026 · A CAFÉ OF OUR OWN

We finally opened the doors

On August 15, 2026, we opened our café at 1330 Polk Street in San Francisco. After the roasting and the pop-ups, Le Mil’s had a place of its own.

South Indian filter coffee, our signature drinks, and the Indian beans that started all of this. Now you can come by and have a cup with us.

We’ve come a long way from those campus lunches. The coffee is still at the center of it.

Milana and Himanshu raising glasses of coffee inside their Polk Street café

Come visit our café →

We feel lucky to share this coffee with you. It’s been part of our family, our friendships, and our everyday life for years. We hope it finds a place in yours, too.

Thanks for being here.

Himanshu & Milana