On Seattle's Yesler Terrace, the Queer, Latina-Owned Cafe Calaveras Serves Up Culture and Nostalgia

A swarm of colorful patio tables crowd the space outside of Café Calaveras, a new queer, Latina-owned coffee shop on Yesler Terrace.

Inside, you'll find a space vibrating with bright colors and tall windows. Two walls are covered in photos of Latina icons like Selena Quintanilla-Pérez and Frida Kahlo, and a display case filled with conchas, a type of Mexican breakfast pastry in the shape of a shell. And, of course, coffee.

Named for the decorative sugar skulls of Día de los Muertos, Café Calaveras recently opened its doors for a soft-launch opening, welcoming in the community. Located inside the Batik Apartments, where Tougo Coffee used to be, the space represents a huge step forward for owner Clarissa Griego, who, until recently, ran the cafe in a series of pop-ups across the city.

The extensive drink menu features options both with coffee and without, and reflects Griego's Latina heritage with items like café de olla (a Mexican-style coffee brewed in a special pot with cinnamon sticks, star anise, and piloncillo), a mazapán latte (which is topped with De la Rosa, an iconic Mexican candy), and a Mexi matcha (matcha made with horchata and cinnamon). For Griego, the coffee — a single-origin she sources from South Park's Middle Fork Roasters — is just as important as providing an experience steeped in nostalgia and culture.

"What I want to exude more than the specific flavors themselves is more so a feeling," said Griego. "That's what I think about when I'm creating a menu item is the feeling it will bring, whether it be joy or nostalgia or connection or relatability for any Latinos in the city."

The café's roots stretch back several years to a formative period in Griego's life when she lived in Central America. A homegrown San Antonian, she mainly opted for energy drinks to get a needed dose of caffeine and only started frequenting coffee shops once she graduated from college. But soon after, she moved to Panama, where she lived next to a coffee farm and got to see what went into growing and harvesting this bean that so many people need to wake up in the morning (or power them through the afternoons).

"I think I really started to understand the extensive process around this cup of dirt water we all start our day with — from it being planted in the dirt to being nurtured in the dirt to being picked, dried, and shipped," said Griego. "I was just really blown away with how communal even that experience was, making this dirt-water cup that we all started our day with. It touches so many hands."

In 2019, she packed her bags and moved to the unofficial coffee capital of the world — Seattle — determined to break into coffee herself. After a stint as a barista at Starbucks, she cut her teeth in the third-wave coffee world at Ghost Alley Espresso in Pike Place Market, serving up espresso to thirsty tourists and Gum-Wall-oglers. Noticing the lack of women and Latinx-led coffeehouses here in the city, Griego decided that she wanted to bring her own space to Seattle, imbued with flair from Latin coffee culture and her hometown of San Antonio.

"When I first moved here, I felt out of place. I felt like I wasn't seeing a lot of people who looked like me, who sounded like me, and started to feel a longing of wanting to be back in touch with my culture. … I also felt like, as I was working in the coffee industry and kind of tapping into the coffee world, I noticed it was a very male-dominated industry," reflected Griego.

"There were so many layers of not feeling like I belonged," said Griego. "Not that anybody made me feel that way. It was just like a lack of seeing people who looked like me, sounded like me, from my ethnicity to being a woman, especially in this profession. I wanted to really mesh all of that together in honor of community and connection."

Griego started small — with a pop-up. She debuted Café Calaveras at Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery's Lowrider Block Party in White Center in 2023 and, over the last two years, has popped up around the city, most notably having a residency on the waterfront at Pier 62. Griego described the pop-ups as a "communal effort," pulling on the resources and community she had in life — her barista friends would help shape the drinks, friends would help her set up her station or loan her an ice chest, a table, or coffee dispensers.

Now that Café Calaveras is situated in a permanent space, there's a lot more room for Griego to both expand her offerings and dial in her menu. She will continue to offer concha from Bakescape as well as new additions, including an in-house breakfast sandwich and breakfast tacos from Sunrise Tacos. Griego hopes to offer more food in the future, like salads, nachos, soups, and açai bowls. But the most important aspect is creating a place that invites in a sense of belonging alongside a cup of joe.

"I hope that if someone is female-identifying, they come in and they see themselves represented, and they walk outside of the space feeling seen and feeling celebrated," Griego said. "Especially in our climate today, with how many rights are being stripped, not just from women but Latinos, [I hope] we can still feel like we belong. We can still feel empowered and celebrated."

Café Calaveras's soft opening hours are from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Find out more on the café's website or Instagram. Café Calaveras's official opening will be announced at a later date.