Xela Coffee Roasters Trades Second Ward Window For Full Montrose Cafe

Xela Coffee Roasters has swapped its old walk-up window for a proper sit-down cafe, opening its new Richmond Avenue location in the heart of Montrose with indoor seating for the first time in the brand's 12-year history. The Guatemalan-inspired roastery, launched in 2014 by Benji Aguilar and Kaitlin O'Brien, now shares a building with two of the neighborhood's better-known food and drink destinations.

According to Community Impact, Xela is now located at 1617 Richmond Ave., inside the same building as tiki bar The Toasted Coconut and Nonno's Family Pizza Tavern. The outlet reports that Xela closed its former walk-up roastery window on Canal Street in Houston's Second Ward for good in January, ending an operation that had opened there in 2018. The name Xela is a shortened, locally used version of Quetzaltenango, the Guatemalan city where co-owner Benji Aguilar's parents are from, and Community Impact notes the brand builds its identity around that Central American heritage, modern roasting techniques, and collaboration with local artisans.

A Bigger, Sit-Down Space With an Expanded Menu

The move to a fully dedicated cafe space marks a real shift for a business that built its following through a walk-up model. Per Community Impact, Xela emphasizes exotic roasted coffees and offers permanent and seasonal drinks inspired by internationally imported beans, alongside teas and flavored sodas. The roastery also makes its own syrups and toppings in-house and sells individual or bulk bags of its featured coffee beans through its website, xelaroasters.com.

The new Richmond Avenue space has given Xela room to experiment. A post on the company's Facebook page describes an expanded signature drink menu built for the new setting, including an Oaxaca Cold Brew steeped for 48 hours with panela and orange peel, and a drink called A Weekend in CDMX that layers guajillo chili, anise, oat milk, and espresso. Customer reviews have pointed to those Latin American-inspired profiles as a highlight of the new menu.

From Pandemic-Era Pickup Lockers to a Storefront Crash

Xela's original Second Ward location earned its own reputation over the years. Houston Chronicle restaurant critic Alison Cook featured the walk-up spot in December 2020 for its contact-free pickup lockers and colorful outdoor space, calling it a vital neighborhood fixture during pandemic restrictions. The location weathered a harder blow in March 2023, when the Canal Street storefront suffered severe damage after being struck by a hit-and-run driver, according to Houston Food Finder, prompting a wave of community support to help fund repairs.

Before founding Xela, Kaitlin O'Brien worked in tech marketing after earning a communications degree from Texas A&M, while Benji Aguilar built his roasting expertise at Katz Coffee and later earned Quality Grader certification at Farmer Brothers Coffee, according to the company's own team page. Their combined backgrounds helped the pair be named Rising Star Roasters at the 2019 StarChefs Houston Rising Stars Awards, a nod to their transition from small-batch roasting into a recognized name in the city's specialty coffee scene, per StarChefs. Xela also built early buzz in 2016 with Screwston Cold Brew, a coffee concentrate that paid homage to Houston hip-hop legend DJ Screw and was bottled in packaging styled after Promethazine cough syrup bottles.

Joining Montrose's Growing List of Independent Coffee Spots

Xela's arrival at 1617 Richmond Avenue puts it inside a building already known as a Montrose dining hub. The Toasted Coconut opened there in 2019, as Hoodline previously reported, and Nonno's Family Pizza Tavern later earned national recognition from Esquire magazine in 2023.

The relocation also fits a broader pattern reshaping Montrose's caffeine scene this year. Independent concepts have been filling storefronts once held by chains or opening fresh day-to-night spaces, including Wah Coffee's move into a former Starbucks location and Bar Xolo's opening on Westheimer Road. That local shift lines up with strong international demand for the beans Xela sources from Guatemala: the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service projects Guatemala will export 2.88 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee in the 2026/27 marketing year, with the United States receiving 42 percent of those exports. The agency also reports that 81 percent of Guatemalan coffee exports qualify as strictly hard beans, a premium high-altitude classification prized by specialty roasters for its density and rich flavor.