Coffeehouse Perks With Ethnic Flavor

The stainless steel counters and tidy shelves filled with bagged coffee beans at Panaderia Taza are standard coffeehouse decor, but the pastry case isn’t filled with muffins and scones.

It’s lined with conchas, Mexican sweet breads, and empanadas, triangle-shaped crust filled with fruit or custard. And the coffee is Mexican brand Cafe Combate.

Panaderia Taza is a coffeehouse targeted specifically at Latinos, a market growing so rapidly here and elsewhere in the United States that its owners plan to franchise it.

“We just want to be ahead of the curve,” said Peter Conforto, president and chief executive of Masa Men, the management company that opened Panaderia Taza in June.

Ethnic markets and mom-and-pop bakeries have long been tucked into urban shopping centers, but as the Latino population grows, entrepreneurs like Masa Men and others are looking to build slicker models that can be franchised.

Latinos make up more than a quarter of the Phoenix-area’s population and are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.

Because of the growth, more large companies are looking for ways to target the market. Conforto and the other two businessmen at Masa Men, all of whom have experience in starting and franchising restaurants, see an opportunity to create an expandable business model specifically catering to Latinos.

They would not be the first. Masa Men started as the Arizona franchise holder of Pizza Patron stores, a Dallas-based chain that targets Latinos by generally building in neighborhoods that are at least 40% Latino.

Started in 1986, Pizza Patron had four stores two years ago but expects to have 80 by yearend, said Andrew Gamm, the company’s director of brand development. Most Pizza Patrons are in border states, but Gamm said the company expects to expand nationally as the Latino population grows.

Beyond offering chorizo, a spicy sausage, as a topping, Pizza Patron’s menu looks much like most pizza places, but the bilingual signs and staff and relatively inexpensive pies have allowed it to expand aggressively, Gamm said.

The executives at Masa Men got the idea for Panaderia Taza while opening their initial eight Pizza Patron locations. A baker leased the space next to one store, and Lee Cohn, a Masa Men managing partner who sits on a number of restaurant boards including that of Morton’s Restaurant Group, saw an opportunity.

He began visiting panaderias, or bakeries, in town. They were full of customers, but Cohn thought he and his partners could execute the concept with cleaner stores and better service.

“If we did this and we did it a little better than anyone else ... raised the quality level and the service level, we could possibly build a chain out of this,” Cohn said.

What emerged was Panaderia Taza -- “the cup bakery” in English. It includes a bakery that makes Mexican pastries, which tend to be more breadlike and less sweet than European-style pastries. And it serves Mexican coffee and drinks like cafe con leche, coffee with milk, and mezclado con azucar, sugar-sweetened coffee. The house music is a popular Spanish-language radio station.

The Masa Men management sought out a Mexican coffee brand and brought in a baker from Mexico to help refine recipes, Conforto said. Executives wanted to make sure the menu was authentic.

But Panaderia Taza includes some Starbucks-like qualities, including wireless Internet access and a modern interior.

The prices of the coffee and pastries are lower than in most area coffeehouses, with cookies that sell for 33 cents and a grande cup of coffee for $1.29 -- allowing it to compete with other panaderias and the convenience store that sells coffee across the street.

The staff and pastry labels are bilingual.

“The whole goal is to make sure our customer, no matter who comes in, feels comfortable here,” Conforto said.

Ray Ramirez, 54, used to get his coffee at a local convenience store, but after Panaderia Taza opened, he began stopping in a couple of times a week, carrying his plastic mug with the Taza logo.

“I’d like to see them make a success of this,” he said.

The panaderia is better organized than many typical to the area, and he prefers the lighter roasted coffee.

Conforto said one thing that has pleasantly surprised the owners is that Taza has good crossover appeal. It was designed to reach Latino consumers, including both recent immigrants and later generations, but as many as 40% of customers are non-Latinos who simply prefer the coffee or pastries.

Cassandra Mason-Motz, 58, is a native of New York, but she has developed a taste for Mexican coffee and pastries and often takes them to work to share with co-workers.

“The price is good, and it’s in the neighborhood. It’s a warm feeling,” said Mason-Motz, who noted that children and parents can be seen sharing cookies or other treats at the store’s stainless steel tables.

The executives at Masa Men are still refining Panaderia Taza, but they hope to have it ready for franchising by the end of the year, Conforto said.

The key to making a Mexican coffeehouse chain viable over a large number of markets will likely be that ability to appeal to all consumers, not just Latinos, said Harry Balzer, a food industry analyst at market researcher NPD Group.

People are willing to try new things but will make a habit only of foods that are fairly close to familiar ones, he said.

“We are more alike than we are different” in our food taste, Balzer said.