Twin Cities area sees wave of new coffee shops opened by people of color

The owners of Abogados Café in St. Paul want customers to feel transported to Latin America when they enter their shop in Como Park. As the first Latino-owned coffee shop in the Twin Cities, hot drinks there are flavored with spices such as cayenne or cinnamon, and their mercadito sells products including avocado honey and cassava chips.

To the surprise of owners Ofelia Ponce and Inti Martínez-Alemán, lawyers who opened their law-themed shop in June, longtime Minnesotans sometimes even ask for more spice in their coffee drinks, which they call "lawttes."

"One of the things that really warms my heart is getting people connected," Ponce said. "After the pandemic, people who haven't seen each other in so long. It's definitely a connector, this place."

Abogados is one of several coffee shops owned by people of color that have opened in the Twin Cities area this year. Others include Flava Coffee Café and Roots Café in St. Paul; Makwa Coffee in Roseville; Forreal Coffeehouse and Mocha Momma's Coffee in Minneapolis.

The historically white coffee shop industry isn't exactly known for inclusivity, the new coffee shop owners noted. While most coffee is farmed by Black and brown people in Latin America and Africa, nearly 70% of U.S. coffee roasters are white, according to Zippia, a career website.

That has resulted in coffee houses that don't always feel welcoming to people of color. Viral videos of coffee shop staff members displaying a lack of cultural competency or outright racism when serving customers of color have spread across social media, including at the now-closed Blackeye Roasting in Minneapolis, which fired a barista who chastised City Council Member Andrea Jenkins for handing out fliers in 2018.

Many of the cafes were started by women or young business owners with visions for spaces that are welcoming and accessible to all.

"The comforts, pleasures and privileges in this great country should be shared with Black, brown and Indigenous entrepreneurs who for the longest time have been marginalized," Ponce said. "We are thrilled to see more of our peers sharing part of the Twin Cities coffee market."

Linda Leegard, who lives in Como Park, stopped in Abogados on Monday to catch up with her niece visiting from Virginia.

"I like supporting local," Leegard said. "All my neighbors are thrilled that it's here. ... We have a couple of Caribous, but that's not the same. It's like going to McDonald's or going to a real restaurant."

A mile away in Frogtown, Shaunie Grigsby opened Flava Coffee Café in July. Grigsby had long dreamed of working in coffee, and she wanted to create a community space where Black Minnesotans could feel seen when they walk into the room.

"It's been really cool to look out and see Black folks just chilling," Grigsby said. "Because sometimes we go into these spaces and you are the only one, and that creates something inside you that's like, 'Do I want to stay here very long?' Its been really good to see the response from the community."

Women and nonbinary youth employed by a work partnership with St. Paul's Right Track program serve drinks such as the "bell hooks," a brown sugar latte, and food such as the popular Badu sweet potato wrap.

At Makwa Coffee in Roseville, a Native-owned café that opened two months ago, every seat and table remained filled long after the early rush one recent morning. Patrons lined up for miel(honey) pumpkin lattes, waving at one another when they walked in.

When the pandemic began to recede last summer, owner Jamie Becker-Finn, who is an Ojibwe state representative and lawyer, felt like she was re-entering a different world. She realized there were no places in her neighborhood to gather that were safe, welcoming and unique.

"I kind of threw it up on my personal Facebook, 'Hey, if there was a craft coffee shop in this area of Roseville, what would you guys think?' and all my friends were like, 'You should do it,'" she said. "The universe kept sending me signals that I should keep going."

The cafe is cozy, with books, a fireplace and details that may even teach customers a bit of Ojibwe. One popular drink on the menu: Ziigwan Sugar Maple, a cold brew with caramel and maple syrup that means spring.

Roots Café, inside the Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center in St. Paul, opened in July with some trial and error, said manager Reyna Day. The young staff is having fun learning how to operate a business, and the community has supported them, she said.

"I've worked in corporate barista environments, where your goal is just to get the product out," Day said. "I really wanted to build on having those connections with our customers."

Industry advice wasn't encouraging for many of the entrepreneurs of color considering a coffee shop. Becker-Finn was told she should offer a drive-thru and should open in a neighborhood with a certain median income. A business instructor told Day that most coffee shop owners have outside investment or are using their shop as pet projects.

But the new shop owners saw a need, thinking: If you create it, they will come. Several owners now compare notes.

"It's just such a beautiful thing to be able to be a part of this kind of informal networking community of coffee shop owners," Grigsby said. "It's really cool to see. I think the city is really excited by it as well."