When I first saw the “Cof&” sign above a small business on a side street in Sunnyland, it took me a moment to realize what on earth was being advertised. It wasn’t until I thought about the business’ Colombian roots that I remembered that “&” is written as “y” in Spanish-speaking countries and realized that the sign promised coffee with a Colombian accent.
Cof& owner Oscar Quintero’s mother has lived in Bellingham for the past 25 years, and he always makes regular trips to visit her. Over the years, he has brought his family with him, which now includes his wife Hamie and her three children. During these visits, they discovered how much fun this city and the people they met here were. Three years ago, Quintero’s family finally reconsidered their annual trip and love for Whatcom County.
“I have been working as an electrician in my home country for about 20 years, building electrical systems for companies,” says Quintero. “But the pandemic has changed the way people look at life, and my family made the decision to do something different. I wanted to get to know people, other cultures, and speak another language. To meet not just our country, but the whole world.”
Part of their plan included partnerships Mr. Quintero formed with friends in the coffee industry, but the coffee business in Colombia is very different from the United States. Coffee shops can be a good business model here, but in Colombia coffee is such a way of life; instead of finding coffee shops here and there, there is coffee in every store everywhere. Quintero’s partner runs a coffee shop with his machine, so transporting coffee north was an easy expansion.
new way of doing business
Knowing that people in our region drink more coffee than anywhere else, Quintero moved here with an ace in the bag: a direct connection to the world’s best coffee beans. He enjoys local access to Colombian coffee plantations, a dream for coffee lovers, and maintains personal relationships with the kinds of coffee producers that a large coffee empire cannot manage. As a result, the beans arrive at his Cof & in 50-pound bags approximately every three weeks, fully researched, inspected and hand-selected where they are grown.
By providing quality products to appreciative people, Quintero is poised to move from its first small storefront in Sunnyland to a much larger location in the heart of downtown Bellingham in late 2021. It’s done. Quintero has some big ideas to satisfy his desires. new space.
whereabouts
“At first it was a simple idea to sell coffee. But when you’re an immigrant and over time you start thinking like someone who’s not at home. You say, ‘I miss this about my country.’ I start thinking. Or you talk to someone who says, “I was in your country and I found this, and this is what I found.” ” he says. “I wanted to create a place where I could do that.” feel Columbia. I feel Colombian when I drink coffee or eat something like coffee. arepas, when speaking to someone like me who has a Colombian accent.The idea started as productbut now we feel that we can give to Colombians experience”
Part of Quintero’s plan is to create a space where Colombians and others from South America and the Caribbean can feel like they’ve found home in a foreign land. But he also wants to help those born and raised in Bellingham step into a new world, and he wants to welcome people from other cultures into the conversation.
One of Quintero’s first steps was to welcome artists and their art into the store. “When you first move to a place, you feel like you’re the only one there,” Quintero says. “And we realized that we have people from all over the world here. We want to share this place with different cultures.”
Quintero met Deanna Lane, who represents Native artists through Native Arts 360, which is yet another type of community. In addition to selling art, Cof& wants to introduce Bellingham to the other communities we have here. “One month it might be a Native artist and the next month it might be a Latin artist,” he says. “That’s the idea.”
In addition to filling the vast open walls with visual art, Quintero also plans to utilize a large stage in the back of the store.
“We’re currently looking for musicians. It’s not easy because there’s not a lot of Latin music here. We had a Latin group at the grand opening, but we had to go all the way to Seattle to find them.” he says. “But my idea is not to go to Seattle and bring a stranger to Bellingham. My plan is that the artist is from here, from Bellingham.” He’s already at Cafe Antonio and his Roomba. Together, he has begun holding salsa dance classes every Tuesday night at the Cof&.
Future Plans
Next on Quintero’s list is opening a kitchen in a new location. He was initially excited to start serving the food he grew up in Colombia, but his plans changed a bit.
After meeting a man from the Dominicana Republic, Quintero realized that all Caribbean countries have similar foods. “I’m no expert, but to me the Caribbean is all the countries that have a tropical-like climate, people like that, and food like that grown in that ocean. So I changed my mind. Colombian cuisine is too specific for me to introduce. I’m going to have a more general experience, including some of the most famous types of food.”
A liquor license is also in the works, and Quintero is looking forward to introducing a range of cocktails centered around coffee, a central part of the Colombian lifestyle. In addition to being a daytime coffee shop, he looks forward to Cof& becoming a destination for people looking to combine food, drink, dancing and good conversation. A family-friendly place to spend the night that adults can enjoy as well. And on top of that, there is a place for multicultural gatherings and the sharing of ideas across borders.
Oscar Quintero is inviting artists, musicians and artisans of all kinds to get in touch through his Instagram page to suggest ways to help transform coffee shops and transport customers.
