SALT LAKE CITY — There’s a new coffee shop in Salt Lake City, working to give a little love to a part of town that often feels overlooked.
Culture Coffee is now open on the west side, off 300 North and 900 West.
"I've been dying for something like this,” said Spencer Holt, a high school teacher who lives in Rose Park.
“As far as a neighborhood, stand-alone brick and mortar coffee shop, this is the first one,” said general manager Mike Tuiasoa.
The store’s grand opening was last Saturday, and the business said there was a line around the block that day. Since then, the store has stayed consistently busy.
"We were expecting a good response,” said Tuiasoa. “We're blown away at the support from the neighborhood and the community."
He said this business was two years in the making. The owners, Isaac Atencio and Eric Ston, also own the barber shop next door, so this is an expansion of their business.
"We go get coffee, we draw, hang out with friends, make comics, and now it's within walking distance and it's been great,” Holt said.
Culture Coffee says it strives to help people who live on the west side feel seen and represented.
"I feel like it's really important that we are BIPOC owned and operated business,” said Tuiasoa. “Because it does reflect the diversity of the west side. We are Latino and Black owned, and managed by Pacific Islander, and all three of us have put in our cultures and our backgrounds into making this place special."
"Rose Park is a very diverse community," Holt said. "I think it’s great to be able to see that represented here in our shops and to see it not just be a chain and see it be something run by the people."
From infusing their cultures in the menu to art on the wall, the team wants this to be more than just a coffee shop.
"The combination of the people who work here and the community buys drinks and hang out, it turns into something else and it turns into something bigger than we visualized and planned for. It breathes, it lives, it grows and it becomes part of the community,” said Tuiasoa.
