Mayra Bracamontes’ great grandfather exported his first bag of coffee beans to San Francisco from his family’s farm in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico in 1871. Now, 150 years and six generations later, Bracamontes has her own cafe in San Francisco serving those same beans.
Chula Cafe, which is owned by Bracamontes and her husband, Adrian Betanzos, opened its doors on Saturday, Sept. 12 at 701 Illinois St. in the Dogpatch. The couple previously operated Chula Cafe as a coffee retailer for several years, selling their blends online and in stores around the city before securing a retail space.
Bracamontes and Betanzos both grew up in the lush volcanic city of Tapachula, in the southernmost region of Mexico. Betanzos, a designer and engineer, came to the Bay Area twenty years ago for a job at Apple; Bracamontes came ten years later for him and they’ve been together since. Bracamontes didn’t always see a future in her family’s business: She worked as an artist and photographer, then later, running social programs and agro-tourism at coffee farms.
The couple found their way back to the family’s coffee legacy over several years. Before they had a name or branding, their first big launch event was, accidentally, their 400-person wedding in at the family farm in Tapachula: As a party favor, they provided all the guests with a bag of the farm’s coffee in their hotel rooms, roasted with help from Nabeel Silmi from Grand Coffee.
The guests left wanting more. “That was a huge motivation to finally say, Let’s start the business,” said Betanzos. They dove head-first into launching Chula Cafe in 2018 while Bracamontes was pregnant with their first child. Their next big product release would be for a friend’s wedding in 2019 — a partner at Y Combinator who’d always been pushing them to start the business. Their cafe is now just around the corner from the incubator’s headquarters.
Bracamontes said of the family business, “It was always there, but not because I chose it. Now I choose it… I realized that I just love it and it makes so much sense to stick to it, water the plants, and take care of this beautiful family tradition.”
During a conversation with Gazetteer SF at their cafe, the couple took turns filling in dates and telling stories. “You’re more technical and I’m the artist,” Bracamontes said, facing Betanzos. Then, turning to me, “I have a lot of inspiration, but he’s the one that makes it effective.”
The San Francisco coffee community has been very good to them, they agreed, be it in the form of packaging recommendations from Verve, lent equipment from Sightglass, or a connection from CoffeeShop that resulted in their own space. They currently roast their beans at Ikon Coffee in Potrero Hill.
Chula serves drip coffee, classic espresso drinks such as americanos and cappuccinos, specialty lattes such as the cardamom-spiced Chula Latte, and Mexican hot chocolate with toasted marshmallows. Their signature blends include the Gentle, a rare varietal with 66 percent less caffeine than standard Arabica coffee; The Honey-Do, processed with honey; and their most popular and ole’ reliable, The Homie. A small selection of tea and conchas are also available. Sandwiches are supplied by Chiotras Grocery in Potrero Hill, the first shop to stock Chula when Bracamontes and Betanzos first launched the brand.
The open-air cafe sits in a newly-renovated storefront at the YMCA facing Crane Cove Park. Their main entrance is a roll-up garage door, which, at half-mast, displays large white lettering: “We drink Mexican coffee.” The space is much taller than it is wide, with massive ceilings. Dark wood fixtures and plants warm up the garage-like bones, and baristas pour behind a sleek L-shaped bar.
The majority of Chula Cafe’s seating is outside in a small concrete courtyard. I visited them on their fifth day open; the pavement outside of the cafe was already decorated with drawings thanks to the buckets of chalk they’d left out. Betanzos was on the register, chatting with customers with an ease that is typically grown over months, not days. Firefighters, freshly-minted parents, founders, medical workers from nearby UCSF, and friends filtered in and out, the couple greeting all of them like family. A line held steady.
To Bracamontes and Betanzos, there is no more perfect location in the city. The Potrero residents had spent many a birthday party at Crane Cove, watching the YMCA get renovated and lusting over the idea of their own little neighborhood outpost.
Bracamontes says it feels full-circle to be handing customers cups of coffee made from beans grown on the land she grew up on and that has been owned by her family for generations. At her Dogpatch cafe she recalled the farm’s lush landscape, unauthorized swims in the fermentation tanks, and stacks of archives and handwritten business ledgers. (Her father, who refused to part with these documents, eventually used them to write a 2020 book about the family business.)
“Lots of neighbors have been celebrating that finally there is a spot to get a coffee and talk to people and to just feel comfortable in a space outside their house,” said Bracamontes. “That feels amazing. That’s exactly what we wanted: To create a space where everybody will feel welcome and can just relax and enjoy.”
