One night, Natalia Alcazar, the owner of a coffee roasting business, got an unexpected call from her mentor that led to the fulfillment of a longtime dream.
José Colón, her business adviser, told her that he normally wouldn’t call at that time, but he wanted to let her know right away about an opportunity to open a coffee shop at the Pivot Center for Art, Dance and Expression at 2937 W. 25th St.
“When I told her, ‘Hey, is this something you want?’ it wasn’t even a second. She was like, ‘Yes, I want it,” said Colón, the senior manager for Latino/Hispanic services at JumpStart, a nonprofit that supports entrepreneurs.
Holding onto her dream of opening a Mexican coffee shop, Alcazar moved from Portland, Oregon, to Cleveland about two years ago. She left her corporate job in August 2022 and launched her roasting business, Dahlia Coffee Co., in May 2023.
Alcazar opened her coffee shop on Dec. 8 at the Pivot Center in a shared space with Future Ink Graphics (FIG) art store. Named after the dahlia, Mexico’s national flower, the coffee shop offers specialty coffee drinks with Mexican flavors like dulce de leche, stone ground chocolate, and cinnamon, along with tea from locally owned Blended Tea Co. and pastries from Jossi’s Bakery & Shop in Broadview Heights.
“Although I love the roasting side of everything, the end goal was always to open a coffee shop,” Alcazar said.
Dahlia Coffee Co. is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first floor of the Pivot Center.
Art store meets coffee shop
The Pivot Center, a former awning factory, is home to several arts organizations including the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Community Arts Center, LatinUS Theater Company, and Inlet Dance Theatre.
Customers can buy local art and locally roasted coffee when they visit Dahlia Coffee and FIG’s corner of the Pivot Center.
FIG opened at the Pivot Center in December 2021, the organization’s owner and director Stephanie Kluk said. It sells art, offers studio space and equipment to visual artists, and teaches art classes.
“I purposely built out the front knowing that I wanted to sublet it to a cafe,” Kluk said. “Because the idea was I really wanted people to come to our art store and buy local art, and the cafe would be a good draw for that.”
When Kluk found out that the previous coffee shop tenant would be leaving the space, she reached out to Colón, the JumpStart mentor, who connected her with the Dahlia Coffee Co. owner.
Alcazar said she moved in and set up Dahlia Coffee Co.’s space in less than a month. The previous coffee shop already had installed sinks and plumbing, which helped speed up the process, she said.
She decorated her space with Latina artists’ work, including hand-painted vases from Arizona and intricate prints from Portland.
Her boyfriend, local artist Glen Infante, painted a portrait of Frida Kahlo holding a pug for the coffee shop. There are also pugs on some of Dahlia Coffee Co.’s branding and on the placemat where customers pick up their drinks. “I am a pug mom, so I have a pug that’s like my baby,” Alcazar said.
Dahlia Coffee Co. serves guava rolls, empanadas, and other pastries from Jossi’s Bakery & Shop, the coffee company’s first wholesale customer. Alcazar said the bakery owner encouraged her to apply for JumpStart’s Impacto program for Latino entrepreneurs. That’s where Alcazar met Colón, the program’s leader.
The coffee shop also sells mugs from other Latina-owned businesses like Dahlia Artesanal Co. and packaged Mexican snacks from Paktli, a business in Cincinnati.
“The most rewarding part so far has been my ability to support other businesses even in my small, tiny little space,” Alcazar said.
Growing Dahlia Coffee Co.
When the coffee shop opened, most of the customers buying Dahlia Coffee Co.’s bagged coffee were based outside of Cleveland, Alcazar said. The business has over 12,000 followers on TikTok. But at first, the coffee shop struggled to reach local customers.
On one particularly slow day, Alcazar filmed a video showcasing the coffee shop that said “POV: You opened a Mexican coffee shop in Cleveland, Ohio, and some people still don’t know you exist” and posted it on TikTok and Instagram. The video got more than 96,000 views on TikTok.
After posting the video, Alcazar asked a staff member, who was just helping with special events at the time, to come work at the shop the next day.
“I was like, ‘So this video’s really taking off. I think I need help tomorrow because I think it’s gonna be crazy,’” Alcazar said. “And I’m so glad I called because I had so many people come in because of that video.”
Dahlia Coffee Co. was one of 40 grant recipients selected out of 1,300 applications to receive $5,000 from TikTok and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s “Creciendo con TikTok” (“Growing with TikTok”) grant for Latino small business owners.
Alcazar plans to use the funding to buy a bigger espresso machine to help her make more drinks at one time.
Dahlia Coffee Co. currently has one full-time staff member and two part-time employees, and Alcazar is considering hiring another staff member in the coming months.
Alcazar and Kluk, the director at FIG, are coming up with ideas to highlight local artists and let people know about the Pivot Center. They’ve already started working together to host events. The Young Latino Network (YLN) holds community discussion and networking events at FIG’s space the second Saturday of each month, with Dahlia Coffee Co. providing coffee and snacks.
Colón, Alcazar’s JumpStart mentor, said Dahlia Coffee Co. is “like a magnet” drawing people to the Pivot Center.
“This is the beginning for her,” Colón said. “I think somebody with this type of tenacity and perseverance, this is just a stepping stone, that she’s gonna be bringing bigger, bigger things to the coffee scene here in Cleveland. And I’m very excited for it.”
Locally roasted coffee, Mexican flavors
Alcazar roasts her own coffee at First Crack Coffee’s Cleveland co-roasting facility at 1436 E. 31st St. on Tuesdays, when the coffee shop is closed. She learned how to roast coffee by watching Blk City Coffee Roasters videos online and taking roasting classes with Mill City Roasters in Minneapolis and in Cleveland with First Crack Coffee.
The West Coast has a lot of Mexican coffee shops, Alcazar said, but she hasn’t found any in Cleveland. These coffee shops “bring a lot of the culture of Mexico into the drinks themselves,” Alcazar said.
Some of Dahlia Coffee Co.’s specialty drinks include hard-to-find ingredients. To make the sauce for her Mexican Mocha, Alcazar buys weekly batches of chocolate from a Seattle-based company, Rey Amargo, which sources stone ground chocolate from Jalisco, a state in Mexico.
The Mazapán Latte features a classic Mexican peanut candy, and the Dulce de Leche Latte and Canela Latte have milk-based caramel and cinnamon, respectively. The sweet and spicy Café de Olla traditional drink is “a cross between a tea and a coffee,” Alcazar said.
When the weather warms, Alcazar plans to introduce an iced horchata latte, a fan favorite from coffee cart pop-ups she’s held at events in the past.
“This has always been my dream: to open up a Mexican coffee shop. But especially here in Cleveland, it’s going to be something so different, something unique,” Alcazar said. “It was kind of the perfect fit, or the perfect way to bring that part of my love for coffee and my Mexican culture together here to Cleveland.”
Located at the Pivot Center at 2937 W. 25th St., Dahlia Coffee Co. is open Monday and Wednesday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Visit the coffee shop’s website or follow Dahlia Coffee Co. on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok to learn more.
Visit Future Ink Graphics (FIG)’s website, or follow them on Instagram or Facebook. The next event in Young Latino Network (YLN)’s Cafecito series is a meetup for LGBTQ+ community members on Feb. 10 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the Pivot Center. RSVP here.
Learn more and apply for JumpStart’s Impacto program for Latino entrepreneurs here. Applications close March 1.
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