Finals week is upon us. The season of all-nighters draws ever closer and the only thing that can keep us sustained is coffee. The usual places on campus are growing stale, the routine becomes boring and the flavors have lost their excitement. Students delve further into the city, seeking new coffee shops and study spaces. Here, in downtown Riverside, is your newest entry to the rotation. Welcome to Coffeecito House.
With its grand opening on Dec. 1, 2023, owners Brittnee and Steve Chavarria converted a Victorian style home in Riverside into a coffee shop. Coffeecito draws inspiration from Latin style food and drinks and puts its own delicious twist on it. The shop offers drinks like Churro Oat Lattes and HorCHAItas (a chai latte that tastes like horchata). If coffee is not your preferred form of caffeine intake, they offer teas and a category called Lotus Energy Drinks. These beverages are plant-based energy that give the same kick of caffeine. Some of the names of these drinks include El Paraiso (blood orange, coconut and peach) and Sweet Cartagena (strawberry, peach and vanilla syrups topped with sweet foam).
The drinks are not where the interesting names and flavors stop. Coffeecito offers a range of breakfast and lunch items. Breakfast covers everything from chorizo burritos to veggie egg big bites. Lunch offers items such as the Cubano sandwich and the empanada grande. They even offer pastries like their churro muffin, guava and cream cheese turnover and their macaron cake pops. With these extravagantly delicious names, one would think they cost an arm and a leg to purchase, as many coffee shops in Riverside do. Surprisingly, the price ranges of the food are $3.30 – $12.75. The drinks range in price from $3.30 – $6.85. Of course, these prices may be subject to change depending on substitutions or added syrups.
I ended up reviewing one of their specialty drinks:
Dulce de Leche Latte
Price: $5.95
Rating: 5/5
This latte was so delicious! At first, you think it’ll be the regular cinnamon lattes that seem to pervade every single specialty coffee shop. Something about this drink tasted different. Whether it was the caramel that seemed richer than the flavored syrups or the thick, sweet condensed milk, this latte stood out above the rest. The caramel was so sweet and was so welcome after so much disappointing coffee.
Coffeecito House is a business you will hear before you see. Because the outside looks like a house you would find on the outskirts of downtown, don’t panic if you don’t immediately see it. Follow the music or your GPS through the black iron gates to the front door. You will cross through a mini garden and patio area. There is so much outdoor seating that you won’t need to worry about there not being enough seating inside. You’ll walk up the stairs and through doors with beautiful glass windows. From there, you can either turn left to see the menus and order or you can turn right to the seating area.
The indoor seating area has such lovely options. You can choose the window options: either the full tables or the bar that faces out to the street. You can also pick the couch that sits under a sarape with a neon sign saying Coffecito House. If you can’t pick, there are also a couple tables that give you a good view of everything, so you don’t feel like you’re missing out!
Coffeecito House is a brilliantly constructed coffee shop. The building itself is so different from the traditional and their flavors don’t seek to replicate everything that’s trending right now. The big windows and their outdoor seating area ensure you don’t feel confined in a small area. And, when studying gets boring, you can people watch, perhaps drawing inspiration for what you’re working on. Coffeecito House is open everyday from 7 a.m to 3:30 p.m except on the weekends when they open an hour later. Think of this place when considering your study rotation. I promise it will not disappoint!
