Soft opening of Mission Viejo’s community-orientated coffee shop
Ocho latte and croissant featured on Ocho Coffee Company’s Instagram page. | Paula Hurtado
Products are subject to change according to community response, with Ocho’s current menu including classic espresso-based and matcha drinks alongside signature flavors. Open to experimentation, baristas offer combinations of their own creation, some of which, with growing popularity amongst guests, may become permanent additions to the menu.
“This work is a lab,” said Hurtado, co-owner and founder of the shop. “And what a lab does is they try. They try products, they try combinations. It doesn’t work, they try it again. The coffee shop is in the front but you have your lab in the back, that is our kitchen. Our kitchen is our big lab. We’re always trying to make new coffees in the back, new drinks or new pastries.”
Paul Rivera, the shop’s pastry chef, joins in on the experimentation by trying out new flavors and concepts for his pastries. Popular pastries amongst guests include the lemon meringue croissant and matcha croissant, both featured on the company’s instagram .
Relying on joint communication with staff and guests of the store, Hurtado aims for flavors unique to the shop.
“We have a lot of people who come here everyday,” Hurtado said. “Or they show up two times a week and I’m like wow. It’s really nice to know their names. It’s really cool for me to learn about the neighbors and have our regulars.”
The coffee shop builds off of the community in prioritizing a space that welcomes guests through conversation and a place to relax.
“We want to put comfortable chairing, nice outdoor furniture,” Hurtado said. “So we want things to be more cozy for people to hang out here. That is something I’ve wanted since day one. I used to love having wide couches, playing with the laptops and all those things that bring me back to when I was a student.”
The grand opening of Ocho will be early June after experimenting with public engagement.
“This is what we learn from you guys,” Hurtado said. “This is what you guys wanted, this is what you guys are asking for. From here, you’re just going to see more and more.”
Together with her husband, Hurtado and Ngai bring their business model full circle with the name of the shop.
“Lets pick something that is short, that means something for us,” Hurtado said. “That is your culture and my culture, that is fortune. We want fortune for this place. And the number 8 is the fortune number in Chinese. So I told him, let’s put ocho in Spanish because it’s short. People will actually get it into their brains.”
A mix of culture, pastries and drinks creates a space for open communication.
A name that slips off the tongue will get guests to come in. But their interaction with the shop will get them to stay.
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