A new coffee shop opened in Forest Park last month that offers strong brews, homemade pastries, and handmade empanadas, run by a family team.
Fernando Silva, the owner, said he’s been eyeing the building he opened Espresso Cafe in for about 14 years. Silva previously worked in an office building along Roosevelt Road and said he always found himself traveling far for a cup of coffee. After buying the space and renovating it for the last two-and-half years, Silva opened the family-run shop Oct. 19.
Their espresso is a mix between Columbian, Guatemalan and Brazilian beans. All their coffee roasts are from WhirlWind Coffee Company, a local coffee supplier. Silva said they focus on bringing good quality coffee that is consistent for their customers.
“They[customers] know what they want, and that makes our life easier. They get happy, and they love the coffee not just because it’s local, but because it’s good coffee,” Fernando Silva said.
Silva’s daughter makes all of the pastry items sold at the shop, including guava and cheese Danishes, cookies, and churro cupcakes. Espresso cafe also has sandwiches and empanadas, all made in-house by the family team. The sandwich menu includes combinations like their cold “burrata caprese” and their “cafe original”, an Italian-style sandwich with mortadella and capicola. All the sandwiches are made fresh daily.
Different fresh pastries fill their counters every day, but items like Danishes and cookies are mainstays in the menu. On the coffee-menu, a light-roast and dark-roast drip coffee alternates daily among the usual lineup of hot and iced lattes and espresso coffees.
Silva is a graphic designer by trade, and said that he’s always wanted to open either a cafe or restaurant. In 2019, he attended the Texas Coffee School, a coffee-shop business and barista training school in Texas, to learn how to open a coffee shop of his own.
Silva’s son, David, is a certified barista and is Espresso Cafe’s head barista. He said they are proud to offer local, good coffee and they have a clear vision on what they want to provide.
“I want us to have high quality coffee. I want to say it’s good and consistent. I want customers, every single time they come in, to notice the same high quality,” David Silva said. “We obviously try our best to make it local. We’re not ashamed or trying to hide away our coffee distributor.”
Since opening, Fernando Silva said he has seen some familiar faces at the coffee-shop counter. He used to coach soccer in the area, and David attended Forest Park-area schools. Espresso Cafe is working on a fundraiser in early December to raise funds for the schools, and also plans to hang and sell artwork from local artists in the cafe space.
Fernando Silva said they are settling into their location in Forest Park, and are gauging customer interest in all their different cafe offerings. He said he looks towards scaling up the business and expanding in the future.
“It’s good to know that we can bring good coffee to this area. But, when I decided to open this coffee shop, it was always in my mind to open a second or third coffee shop. This is the basic one, so we’ll see how people respond, and then see if we can have others in different places,” Fernando Silva said.
Espresso Cafe is located at located at 7501 Roosevelt Road.