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I wanted to share Café Santo because it’s different from what I’m used to seeing every day on my Instagram feed. This café, which would be the perfect addition to any LA neighborhood, is located in East Los Angeles, and it offers more than just coffee in a cute, Instagrammable space.
I love coffee, but I’m also a hot chocolate fiend, especially in the fall. Jongewaard’s Bake N Broil in Long Beach is my go-to place, but when I saw that Café Santo sourced the chocolate from Mexican vendors, I knew I had to pay them a visit. Plus, their beautiful aesthetic and compelling backstory intrigued me.
Café Santo was founded by Pilar and Marlon. Their mission was to open up a coffee shop centered around community and self-expression. Founded in 2016, Café Santo made its way around LA through pop-ups with a mobile coffee cart. However, it wasn’t until August 2021 that they established a permanent home in Montebello, a city east of Los Angeles.
Marlon moved to LA from his hometown of Oaxaca in 2010. From working as a dishwasher to becoming a certified barista, he always knew coffee was his true passion. Pilar, on the other hand, was born in California to a Mexican family with roots in Oaxaca and Jalisco. She worked in television production for 15 years before leaving the industry to focus on growing Café Santo.
On why they decided to put down roots in East LA, Pilar shared with dailycoffeenews.com:
“The Latinx population is underrepresented in the specialty coffee world. We feel like we are not always taken seriously as competitors because of a perception that the Latinx community is not as well-versed in specialty coffee. On the consumption side, access to quality coffee shops in Latinx communities, which are historically low-income, is limited. We wanted to set up our flagship store in the east side of Los Angeles to provide access to quality specialty coffee to the Latinx community.”
Café Santo offers authentic, artisanal Oaxacan coffee and collaborates with food makers from the same region of Mexico. Rito Chocolateria supplies the chocolate for their specialty drinks, while Reina Negra Chocolate provides their mocha base. Chef Leonardo Antonio created the food menu, which includes memelas, traditional Oaxacan masa cakes. Oaxaca-based designer Mariana Rodriguez and Juan Renteria from @elcreativo.la were in charge of all the visual elements.
In order to create jobs for the community, Café Santo is developing an exchange program with baristas from Oaxaca and other parts of Latin America. Their ultimate goal is to open up a Café Santo location in Oaxaca.
If you grew up in a Latino household, you’ll know that coffee is a sacred ritual. It’s a precious moment that brings family and friends together, and that’s what Pilar and Marlon want to convey through Café Santo, which means “Holy Coffee.”
Through their sleek, minimalist design and cultural expression, every detail was thoughtfully planned to create an immersive experience for guests.
I went there on a beautiful, sunny day and tried their signature drink: the Oaxaca Mocha.
It was smooth and creamy, with the perfect blend of chocolate, coffee, almonds, and cinnamon.
I thought either the chocolate or the coffee would be too strong, but surprisingly, neither ingredient was overpowering. All the flavors balanced each other out perfectly. At the bottom of the drink, there were tiny chocolate bits, which reminded me of drinking hot chocolate as a kid.
It was 86°F in LA, so the iced version made the most sense to me. However, I plan to go back when the weather gets cooler to try more of their Oaxacan chocolate drinks. There’s even a drink called Xoco-shot, made of 100% cacao!
If you love coffee and chocolate and want to venture beyond your usual LA coffee shops to explore the beauty of Mexican culture through its beverages, look no further than Café Santo.
In addition to their drinks, Café Santo also sells their branded packaged coffee and chocolate bars from La Reina Negra at the counter and online. If you visit their website, you will also find merchandise for sale.
Since the space is small and their specialty drinks are handcrafted, you might have to wait a little, but you can relax in their outdoor seating area in the meantime.
Address 520 Whittier Blvd #D, Montebello, CA 90640
Because Café Santo is a community-based coffee shop, it’s located at the entrance of Blvd Market, a food hall where you’ll find other Latino eateries in converted shipping containers.
For those of you who read my post about “The Best Restaurants and Coffee Shops in the South Bay”, you might be interested to know that the Salvadorian pupuseria VCHOS has a permanent location at Blvd Market.
Other eateries at Blvd Market include Pez Cantina; Los Taquero Mucho, which offers classic Mexican tacos with a Guatemalan twist; and NOLA, a Black-owned business that showcases New Orleans cuisine through traditional family recipes.
In early November, Blvd Market hosted the Season 2 premiere of the Netflix show Gentefied, which explores the American Dream through the lens of Latino communities in Los Angeles. The event featured food and drinks from different vendors.
I can’t wait to keep discovering more of East LA’s thriving food scene.
