Emmanuel Lujano and his sister dreamed about owning a coffee shop since they were young. That dream became a reality this year with the opening of Coffee con Pan.
Located at 41st and Yale, Coffee con Pan is a Mexican-inspired coffee shop. It opened in late spring, adding to Tulsa’s slate of Mexican-inspired coffee shops like Luchador Coffee and Dulce Vida Cafe.
“We love coffee and one of the most important parts is the base of our coffee — café de olla (Mexican coffee),” Lujano said in Spanish. “In Mexico, moms have their own family recipes, and this is a recipe that our grandma showed our mom.”
Lujano wanted people to enjoy regular coffee with traditional Mexican treats, drinks and foods like aguas frescas and chamoyadas, a frozen slushy drink with chamoy sauce. That combination is something he hadn’t seen before in town.
“In a lot of coffee shops, they offer, for example, sandwiches, pastries and coffees, but they don’t offer those Mexican antojitos (snacks) like fruits, chamoyadas, fresas con crema (strawberries with cream),” Lujano said. “Those are the things people find in their small towns in Mexico… we wanted to bring that experience of maybe you’re craving a coffee with a chamoyada.”
Combinations like churros with an agua fresca and a coffee are enshrined in their menu. Each month they have specials with different seasonal drinks. This month: a pumpkin horchata latte.
“The intention is that people can come and enjoy a monthly special and then next month they come back and try something different so they are left surprised … There’s so many flavors that can be combined,” he said.
Lujano and his family are only three months in. He wants to continue offering new flavor combinations to clients each time they come to the shop.
Some customer favorites include:
- Strawberry matcha
- Mazapán latte
- Coquito
- Chamoyadas
- Aguas frescas
People often find the chamoyadas intriguing. Mexicans are accustomed to snacks with chile and spice, but many customers say it’s the first time they’ve tried anything like it.
“It’s like embracing them into our culture,” he said.
Coffee con Pan is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 4004 S. Yale Ave.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
