A new class of Latin American coffee shops is gaining steam in Denver
Shop owners are embedding themselves into their respective neighborhoods, adorning their spaces and using music, art and performance to draw in clientele.
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Once spread few and far between, coffee shops specializing in drinks and treats from Latin American nations have opened in rapid succession in metro Denver in recent years, each lending a particular emphasis and vision to the cultural diaspora.
Denver, a city with rich Mexican and Hispanic roots, isn’t unfamiliar with dulce de leche lattes, thick hot chocolate spiced with cinnamon and pillowy conchas with pink and chocolate crusts. Santos Cafe & Grill, at 1141 Syracuse St., opened 20 years ago and has all three, plus a full breakfast and lunch menu that keeps customers coming in by the minute.
But other shop owners are embedding themselves into their respective neighborhoods, adorning their spaces and using music, art and performance to draw in clientele.
They’re also befriending each other, visiting their shops and cherishing their stronger presence, said Cynthia Diaz, who opened Tonantzin Casa de Café in 2021. “There’s this perception that similar businesses should be kind of like competing, and we’re doing the opposite.”
Many of the new cafes are operated by Latin American and Hispanic owners, four of whom recently shared the intent and story behind their business.
Cafecito
Cafecito opened late last year on the corner of a strip mall in Montbello, a majority Hispanic neighborhood where people make less than the rest of Denver, according to the city’s online database. There is a Save A Lot in the same strip mall, and it was the budget supermarket’s parent company, Castle Rock-based Leevers Supermarkets, that helped Cafecito co-founder Jorge Gonzalez start his business.
In addition to Chris Leevers and Gonzalez, who is from Mexico, there are five other Cafecito founders, representing Colombia and the United States. They worked with an outside firm to design the interior and branding of Cafecito, making “a place that’s clean, modern, minimalist” and aspirational for Latin American immigrants, Gonzalez said.
There is ample room for seating, and the warm pastries, sweetened coffee and YouTube playlist of Latin rock hits recreate the cosmopolitan shops found in many Latin American megalopolises.
Montbello is Cafecito’s first location, though it’s not envisioned as the last. Gonzalez sized up the potential scale of their “plug and play” model to that of Starbucks and Dutch Bros. and said they hoped to expand, perhaps even into some Sav A Lot locations.
4818 Chambers Road, Denver
LaTinto Café
For eight years, Jorge Aguirre has tantalized tastebuds at La Chiva, his Colombian restaurant on South Broadway. But he often got requests for desserts, pastries and breakfast fare from his native country as well. So Aguirre opened LaTinto in 2023 in the La Chiva space, moving the restaurant across the street.
“I figured there was a demand for it,” he said. “There is no other business that is doing the Colombian-style baking.”
That includes pandebono, a bread made of yucca flour, egg and cheese. Aguirre also pointed toward his almojabana, a bread made with cheese curds, and their guayaba, or guava, pastry with cheese. He noted the “sweet and salty” flavor found in these Colombian baked goods.
“I haven’t tasted that anywhere else,” he said.
The drinks in his cafe take similar advantage of the fruits of the country’s tropical climate, with eight flavors of juices made with pulp frozen and shipped from Colombia, he said. The coffee is brewed from beans cultivated in the country and roasted in Colorado. That includes the latinto drink the shop is named after, a latte with cinnamon and panela, a whole cane sugar. Aguirre capitalized the “t” in the middle to drive the point even further home: Latin America is here.
1417 S. Broadway, Denver
Tonantzin Casa de Café
Tonantzin — the name is a Mexican indigenous word that refers to the concept of Mother Earth — came from a personal desire by Cynthia Diaz to reunite people after the strict and stressful first year of the coronavirus pandemic. She got the inspiration for the shop from her community, a group that practices capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art.
Tonantzin is now located next to that studio, and it has become a gathering point for people in the Art District on Santa Fe. Her labyrinthine space is rooted at an order counter that opens to a courtyard patio frilled with orange and yellow streamers. And she recently expanded into a gallery space painted in rich tones of blue and red by Adri Norris, who exhibits her artwork there.
“They do everything,” Diaz said of her customers, many of whom were chatting outside or staring intently at their laptops. “They sit down and gossip. All the fun stuff.”
It’s all part of the IBM-employee-turned-entrepreneur’s goal to create a “third space” for people outside of work or home, specifically, one that evokes the safety and comfort of a tia’s or abuelita’s house, Diaz said. Her biggest-selling items are the horchata latte, the “guava con queso” pastry, and café de olla, a Mexican coffee drink with cinnamon, star anise and other spices.
She and other cafe shop owners, such as the teams at Migas Coffee (2590 Walnut St., Denver), Convivio Café (4935 W. 38th Ave., Denver) and Cultura Chocolate (3742 Morrison Rd., Denver), know and message each other, solidifying their presence in the city, she said.
910 N. Santa Fe Dr., Denver
Viva! Mexi-coffee-shop
The rhythms and patterns of Latin America drive Viva! Mexi-coffee-shop, opened last summer on East Colfax by Leonard Muñoz and Elisa Garcia. The husband-and-wife team are artists and musicians, said Muñoz, who hails from Mexico City and is a touring percussionist. Their talent is all over Viva!, from the art on the walls to the bookshelf that, when pulled down, turns into a stage.
“We try to create an artistic hub,” said Muñoz, who recently played at his cafe with flamenco guitarist Miguel Espinoza. Eventually, he’d like to put on shows twice a month with musicians and comedians akin to the peñas, similar gathering spots found across Central and South America.
The events, he said, would showcase the creative expression and “calidez”, or warmth, Latin American immigrants often associate with their home country and culture.
Guayaba con queso, cafe de olla and Mexican hot chocolate are shop specialties, Muñoz said, adding that soon they’ll be selling alcohol during performances.
4900 E. Colfax Ave., Denver
