Culture Coffee Salt Lake City: Where the West Side Finally Got the Coffee Shop It Deserves

On a cold March morning in 2024, a line stretched around the block outside 285 N 900 West in Salt Lake City's Fairpark neighborhood. Inside, the aroma of freshly pulled espresso mixed with the smell of fresh paint and nervous anticipation. Isaac Atencio moved through the space—with its exposed beams, handcrafted tables, and a bar made from reclaimed bowling lane wood—watching something bigger than a coffee shop come to life.

"I love it," said a customer who identified himself as Daddy Long Legz, praising the vibe of the locale. "It's really important that we have spaces we are reflected in."

This wasn't just another cafe opening. Culture Coffee had become the west side of Salt Lake City's only brick-and-mortar standalone coffee shop—a title that carries weight when you understand what residents had been missing.

From Coffee Desert to Community Oasis: The Isaac Atencio Story

Isaac Atencio is a lifelong resident of Salt Lake City's west side who always knew the community was "SLC's best kept secret." But knowing your neighborhood has potential and actually doing something about it are two different things entirely.

The roughly 45 minutes customers spend in Atencio's barber chair at The Salt Lake Barber Co. are never totally about hair—chairs face the waiting area, not the mirror on the wall, an effort to spark conversation among visitors. That barbershop, which Atencio co-owns with Eric Stone, became the foundation for something larger. When they opened their west-side location in 2023, they started hearing the same feedback over and over: "This is great, but where can we get coffee around here?"

The answer was nowhere. Not really. If you use Interstate 15 as a delineator, Culture Coffee is the only "freestanding" coffee shop on the west side. The west side had the Buzzed Coffee Truck and Mestizo Coffeehouse near where the west side meets downtown, but for a true neighborhood coffee shop where you could settle in for hours? Nothing.

So Atencio and Stone, along with general manager Mike Tuiasoa, decided to build it themselves. From a vacant untouched building to a living breathing staple of the community, they concepted, designed and built Culture Coffee into existence.

The decision to stay west of I-15 was deliberate. "As far as coffee goes, it's a desert. There's nothing on the west side. All of the coffee shops are on the east side," Tuiasoa explained. But beyond filling a market gap, they wanted to create something that reflected the neighborhood's beautiful diversity—a BIPOC-owned coffee shop Salt Lake City that looked like the people who lived there.

"Between ownership and management of Culture Coffee, we are Black, Latino and Pacific Islander, and all three of us have put in our cultures and our backgrounds into making this place special," said Tuiasoa.

The Lolo Caramel Latte Experience: Where Tongan Meets Third Wave

Walk into Culture Coffee on any given Saturday and you'll hear something you won't find at most specialty coffee shops: old Outkast playing over the sound system, transitioning seamlessly into A Tribe Called Quest. The most salient taste aspect of the latte was that it wasn't overpoweringly coffee or overpoweringly milk—it was truly 50/50 in terms of the taste profile.

But it's the house-made syrups where Culture Coffee's cultural fusion really shines. The star of the show? Lolo caramel.

Lolo caramel is a Tongan delicacy made with coconut cream. The Lolo Caramel Sauce—one of Atencio's favorites—is a family recipe of Tuiasoa's, a coconut-based caramel that's naturally vegan and includes vanilla bean, organic cane sugar and sea salt.

Mike Tuiasoa brings more than just family recipes to the table. Tuiasoa previously owned Watchtower Café, a coffee shop and comic book store near Salt Lake Community College's South City campus, where he created a space where Salt Lake's geek community could come together. "I refer myself as a day walker like Blade in which I can be in both the geeky world and also be with my Tongan culture," he explained. That same sensibility—blending seemingly different worlds into something cohesive and welcoming—defines Culture Coffee's vibe.

The menu goes deeper into cultural territory with cafe de olla Salt Lake City residents have been raving about. The Cafe de Olla is made with piloncillo sugar, orange peel, cinnamon, clove and star anise. "Super sweet staff and everything I've had from here has been great (cafe de olla, chai, and matcha)!" noted one customer.

There's also a Peruvian chocolate flavor made locally by The Chocolate Conspiracy, featuring Peruvian dark chocolate sweetened by coconut sugar. Every syrup is vegan, and most are made in-house—because representation matters, even in your coffee.

"It's kind of funny to see how sterile coffee can be sometimes, and how even the core of a shop can be very Scandinavian and very stark," Atencio said. "At the bottom of it all, coffee is colonized and coffee is brown, when it comes to where it comes from and who is providing it."

More Than Coffee: Arcade Games, Comics, and Community Hub Culture

If you're expecting minimalist Scandinavian design, you're in the wrong place. The mural connecting the coffee shop to the barber shop, created by female-owned Utah business Smock and Roll, has a "sound wave meets lava lamp" design in red, orange, yellow and green. "We were like, 'OK, imagine listening to Curtis Mayfield, and A Tribe Called Quest comes on,'" Atencio said. "The design inspiration is hip-hop meets funk and soul."

Arcade games including Pacman, board games, and card games invite guests to stay awhile, with comic book decor and memorabilia throughout the shop—look up in the rafters to see what hidden figures you can find. Their custom lowrider-inspired La Marzocco espresso machine is out of this world. Even the bathroom gets the treatment—it's covered in graffiti-style art featuring a neon quote from rapper J. Cole: "It's beauty in the struggle."

"Culture Coffee delivers a great experience with its wide, open spaces and unique setup next to a barbershop," customers note. The wide, open layout means you're never cramped, whether you're settling in with a laptop for a work session or challenging someone to a round of Pac-Man.

Customers appreciate the family-friendly vibe, complete with free arcade games and a selection of cultural reading material, with prices often considered among the most affordable options for craft coffee in the area, with large drinks priced around $5.

The thoughtfulness extends to every detail. Tables were handcrafted by the owners and a bar made of recycled bowling lane wood. Atencio and Stone did all the design work and built some of the furniture themselves—because when you're building something to represent your community, you don't cut corners.

Building the West Side's Future, One Cup at a Time

The ambitions for Culture Coffee go beyond serving great lattes. "We hope to just kind of pave the way for others so they see it's possible, doable," said Tuiasoa. "We'd really love to see more businesses on the west side."

Right now, the west side has more than its fair share of what Atencio calls "predatory" businesses—rent-to-own furniture stores, check-cashing operations, fast-food outlets. "It was time to bring bold and new community-oriented businesses to westside that residents have traditionally had to leave the neighborhood for," explained Atencio.

Culture Coffee partners with local organizations like the Food Justice Coalition, allowing customers to purchase plant-based meals at the shop to help support programs that address food insecurity. They also plan to work with local minority-owned businesses like Sagato Bakery & Café and James Gourmet Pies for food options, and carry records from Diabolical Records.

"If you ask any west-side resident, whether they've been here long- or short-term, they will all agree the west side is Salt Lake's best-kept secret. This is about bringing in the resources and attractions that we've typically had to leave the neighborhood for," Atencio emphasized.

The response since opening has been overwhelming. "Business has been booming. The community has really stepped up," said Tuiasoa. On opening day, that line around the block wasn't just people wanting coffee—it was the west side showing up for itself.

Planning Your Visit to Culture Coffee

Address:
285 N 900 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116
Located in the Fairpark neighborhood, sharing a building with Salt Lake Barber Co.

Hours:
Monday-Friday: 7am-6pm
Saturday: 8am-6pm
Sunday: 8am-3pm

What to Order:
Start with the iced lolo caramel latte—it's what regulars come back for. "Culture Coffee opened a little over a year ago and has easily become a Salt Lake City staple," according to City Cast Salt Lake, with the lolo caramel latte being a particular standout. If you want something with a kick of spice, try the cafe de olla for an authentic Mexican coffee experience. The matcha lattes also get consistent praise from customers who appreciate well-executed tea drinks.

The Vibe:
Come ready to stay. The shop offers a comfortable atmosphere with ample charging plugs and good music without loud distractions, making it ideal for work. Weekday mornings are solid for focused work sessions, while weekends bring more of the community energy and game-playing crowd.

Parking:
Street parking available on 900 West and surrounding streets. There's also convenient parking nearby—this isn't downtown, so finding a spot is generally easy.

Follow Them:
Instagram: @culturecoffeeslc

Why Culture Coffee Matters to Salt Lake's Food Scene

In a city that's seen explosive growth in its coffee culture over the past decade, Culture Coffee represents something different. It's not trying to be the next third-wave roaster with single-origin pour-overs and latte art competitions (though the coffee is solid). It's not chasing Instagram aesthetics or courting the laptop crowd from the east side.

Instead, this west side coffee shop is doing something arguably more important: proving that community-oriented, minority-owned businesses can thrive in neighborhoods that have been historically underserved. That a BIPOC-owned coffee shop can bring people together across lines that often divide. That you can make a space feel both deeply local and genuinely welcoming to everyone who walks through the door.

At Culture Coffee's grand opening, co-owner Isaac Atencio got emotional while speaking about what the shop means—not just for his business, but for the entire west side community. Because when you grow up in a neighborhood and watch it get overlooked year after year, and then you build something beautiful right in the heart of it? That's not just business. That's love made visible.

The west side of Salt Lake City isn't a coffee desert anymore. It's got Culture Coffee, where every latte comes with a side of representation, every visit supports the community, and every sip reminds you that good things happen when people invest in their neighborhoods instead of abandoning them.

Stop by, grab a lolo caramel latte, challenge someone to Pac-Man, and see what happens when culture, coffee, and community collide in the best possible way.