How Cafes Are Responding to Fear
Amid the turmoil and uncertainty that many of us are feeling, a café can act as a sanctuary—the ultimate safe space.
BY MEGAN LLOYD
FOR BARISTA MAGAZINE
Featured photo by Emma Ou
A coffee shop has always been more than a place to drink a caffeinated beverage. Often referred to as a “third space,” or a place between home and work that fosters social connection, its placement in society is unique—so much so that the coffee shop often takes on an even greater role: a refuge. A café can be a dry place to wait out the rain, a corner of privacy to breastfeed an infant, a chair where Grandma can rest, or a dignified place to use the restroom. A coffee shop can even safeguard secrets or be a breeding ground for revolutions.
When the U.S. administration changed hands in January, many coffee shops around the country assumed the role of refuge more than ever before, facing new challenges and finding ways to respond to hate and fear to protect their communities.
Convivio Café, a Guatemalan-inspired bilingual shop in Denver owned by Kristin Lacy and Guatemalan native Vivi Lemus, has found itself in a particularly unique landscape since the election. Their customer base is diverse in cultural identity, race, status, age, language, and gender, and their staff is Latino and 100% bilingual. “When you come from this place of being a bilingual, multicultural, immigrant-friendly space during a time when the administration is blatantly attacking these identities and making it unsafe, we play this interesting middle role,” says Kristin.
The café recently hosted events like an Immigrant Wellness Day and a training with the Immigrant Freedom Fund on local immigration policies and detention. “We learned what an actual warrant is,” says Kristin. “We learned how to verify if the piece of paper they are handing you is actually legitimate and judge-mandated.”
The day-to-day can be challenging for owners, as customers and staff seek solace while current events unfold. “We have been facing each day with our customers and community as best we can,” say owners Alisse Cottle and Jess Borrayo of Brew Coffee and Beer House, a queer-owned shop in Santa Rosa, Calif. Amongst a number of initiatives, on March 1 they took an active stance against the administration and closed in support of the Economic Blackout.
At 1951 Coffee Company in Berkeley, Calif., co-founder and CEO Doug Hewitt says, “The biggest thing we’ve had to do is spend so much more time trying to keep up with the legal landscape.” 1951 Coffee Company is a nonprofit specialty-coffee organization that trains and employs refugees, asylees, and special immigrant visa holders.
Some responses are even more practical and protective. Kristin and Vivi placed information at the cash register at Convivio Café detailing what to do if stopped by an immigration agent. Cafés around the country are also volunteering their space for groups in need of a meeting point. In Riverside, Calif., Latino-owned Mundial Coffee hosted a gathering for their local Pride group soon after the election. “They just wanted a night where everyone could come together,” says co-owner Jenn Soto. “It was a safe space for them to kind of decompress.”
Similarly, the folks at Culture Coffee in Chattanooga, Tenn., are intentionally hosting refugee groups in their space. They also host a banned book series for their book club and “plan to actively celebrate every holiday that Trump has paused,” says owner Amber Forgani-King.
Safety includes caring for staff, too. Mundial Coffee, for example, shut its doors for 24 hours for A Day Without an Immigrant in February. “A lot of our baristas are Latino, and they’re first generation here,” says Jenn. She and her husband, co-owner Jason Amaton, still paid the baristas scheduled to work that day. “It meant a lot to our customers and our baristas,” Jenn says. “It was the smallest thing we could do to show our support.”
Language has become an important component of creating safe spaces for targeted communities. For ThreeBirds Coffee House in Easton, Pa., owners Jennifer Murray and her husband, Joe Langdon, insist staff and customers respect pronoun changes so staff feel comfortable. “More than one of our staff members over the years has come to us and said that ThreeBirds was the first space they felt they could be truly themselves,” says Jennifer. Additionally, “Some customers don’t speak English, and we always do our best with a smile and a laugh and a little Google Translate if necessary.”
Comprehension goes the other direction as well, like at Convivio Café, where inclusivity is bolstered from every side. “A lot of our menu is in Spanish, but we try to make everyone feel comfortable, even if you don’t know how to pronounce orders in Spanish,” says Kristin.
The physical environment is just as important, be it flags, door stickers, or the arrangement of space. “In order for people to feel safe in our space, we have to make it clear where we stand,” says Katharine Hiltbrand of Quince Coffee House, an LGBTQ+ and BIPOC-owned shop in Denver. “It’s also how we design our physical environment. Our first renovations were ones to make sure our building was accessible for mobility aids and includes a gender-neutral, single-stall bathroom.”
For others, creating a refuge simply means continuing to uphold established company values. Jennifer at ThreeBirds Coffee House believes that treating staff with compassion and understanding is more important than ever during this time. Equator Coffees, a roaster and chain of women and LGBTQ+-founded shops in California, is holding fast to their ethos: “Inclusivity and community have always been at the heart of what we do, and that hasn’t changed,” says co-founder Helen Russell. “Our commitment to fostering an inclusive environment remains as strong as ever, and we will continue to prioritize that in everything we do.”
Creating a safe space also requires cafés to walk the delicate line between political activism and protecting the populations they serve. “Over the years, we have been vandalized and targeted by hate groups,” say Alisse and Jess of Brew Coffee and Brew Coffee and Beer House. The owners of Quince Coffee House also experienced backlash for displaying BLM, Pride, and Palestine flags and posters; people tore down posters, vandalized the space, and left negative reviews. When Mundial Coffee hosted a local Pride group at the shop, Jenn says they were careful not to over-advertise the event so members felt safe. Convivio Café’s owners, who host numerous events in their space, echoed the sentiment: “We are being really careful about what we want to host,” says Kristin.
Running a business undoubtedly requires patrons of varying political views to survive; many shops try to maintain some level of neutrality, and owners are intentional about creating a place where everyone can feel comfortable. The folks at Mundial Coffee, for example, are happy to display information on their community corkboard about what to do if an immigration officer approaches you, but they also want to be cautious. “We are inclusive and don’t want to upset people,” says Jenn. “People are quick to jump on Yelp and criticize.”
Activism can also take the form of kindness; revolutions often blossom in the mundane mechanics, or as Jennifer of ThreeBirds puts it, the simple notion of being “nice to everyone.” For the team at Quince Coffee House, part of the work is to create “safe space through our actions every day,” says Katharine. “To create safe spaces for ourselves and to fill it with joy and hope has always been our priority as a community. We know it’s risky, but to exist for us is risky, and so we do it passionately.”
While the political landscape is both uncertain and tumultuous, Kristin revels in the privilege of working in an environment where people of diverse backgrounds are regularly kind to each other. It’s often while watching her customers hold the door open for a stranger or smile at a neighbor’s kids that she thinks, “Maybe we are not all as bad as it seems.”
This sacred space built on diversity and kindness becomes essential. “We need a space to remind ourselves of the good of our neighborhoods, where we can proactively support each other,” says Katharine of Quince Coffee House. “Space is foundational to our survival.”
Doug of 1951 Coffee Company sees the coffee industry at its best and with hospitality at its core as a symbol of what the United States could be if we make space for everyone. “It can be an example for the rest of American society,” he says.
Maybe the coffee shop can give us hope. Maybe it will save us.
This article originally appeared in the June + July 2025 issue of Barista Magazine. Read more of the issue online here for free.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Megan Lloyd (she/her) is a former barista and current journalist specializing in food, beverage, and travel. While originally from Houston, she currently calls Sevilla, Spain, her home. Her work has appeared in publications like Bon Appétit, National Geographic Traveler, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and Texas Monthly. She also serves as the Spain correspondent for Migrants of the Mediterranean, a humanitarian storytelling organization.
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