Tres Leches Cafe, the Mexican coffee shop that built a cult following on cafecito, pan dulce and Dia de los Muertos altars, is closing its doors for good after 12 years in business. Owner José Rivera says the last remaining location, in Phoenix's Coronado Historic District, will shut down by the end of September as he runs out of ways to keep paying his staff.
Rivera opened Tres Leches Cafe in 2014 as a front-porch coffee cart, a scrappy $80 start that grew into Arizona's first Mexican gourmet coffee shop, according to Tres Leches Cafe. As reported by Phoenix New Times, Rivera opened his first standalone storefront on Roosevelt Street in 2016, then expanded into a Van Buren Street location, a south Phoenix drive-thru in 2020, and a third Phoenix location in 2022 before that outpost closed in 2023.
By the start of 2026, the business was down to just two shops: the south Phoenix drive-thru and a newer location in the Coronado Historic District at 1302 East McDowell Road. The Coronado shop, which opened by the end of 2025, became Rivera's final operational storefront after the south Phoenix drive-thru shuttered following its last day of service on September 6. The drive-thru had served the neighborhood for six years, but the report notes that operations there were severely impacted by multi-year light rail construction along South Central Avenue that disrupted traffic and customer access starting in 2019. Staff from that location moved to the Coronado cafe on McDowell Road and 13th Street, per the same account.
A Lease Fight That Wouldn't End
The closures cap a years-long legal battle that began with the cafe's original flagship, which had occupied a building at 17th Avenue and Van Buren Street since 2018. In December 2023, Rivera filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court alleging that landlord Otilia Diaz breached their lease and failed to make necessary repairs, including fixing roof leaks, faulty HVAC units, and underground plumbing issues that flooded the kitchen, according to Phoenix New Times.
The dispute had escalated after Diaz's attorney sent a five-day notice to vacate in November 2023, alleging Rivera was a holdover tenant who owed $40,500 or more in rate increases above his $3,500 monthly rent. The cafe's lawsuit sought a temporary restraining order to prevent immediate eviction while the case played out. That protection didn't last: in January 2025, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge dissolved the restraining order, converting the Van Buren Street lease to a month-to-month tenancy and forcing the business to leave its flagship downtown space, ending its seven-year presence there.
The court ultimately ruled in Diaz's favor, and the financial fallout kept mounting. In August 2026, a court order required Rivera to pay Diaz more than $60,000 in attorney fees and legal costs following the final resolution of the lawsuit — a judgment landing on top of debt Rivera says the business never shook off from the pandemic.
National Recognition, Local Struggle
The closure marks a stark turn for a business that once drew recognition well beyond Phoenix. In autumn 2022, Rivera and co-owner Magaly Martinez Saenz visited then-Vice President Kamala Harris at her official residence in Washington, D.C., after the Small Business Administration invited them as part of an honor for pandemic-surviving Latino businesses. Rivera has said the shop took on more than $1 million in debt during the pandemic and has not recovered since.
Rivera has also filed for bankruptcy, and he has said the cafe will operate through September as long as he can pay his staff. “We'll stay open as long as we possibly can,” he said, expressing gratitude for customer support over the past 12 years.
A Cultural Hub, Not Just a Coffee Shop
Beyond its Cafe de Olla, Horchata Lattes and Dulce de Leche drinks, Tres Leches Cafe built a reputation as a community gathering space, hosting elaborate Dia de los Muertos altars each fall that drew loyal crowds during the holiday season. Customer Marisela Almeida has praised the cafe's pan dulce, cafecitos and customer service, a sentiment echoed widely among regulars who watched the business expand across Phoenix over the past decade.
Hoodline previously highlighted Tres Leches Cafe among the city's top spots for affordable coffee and among its top budget-friendly bakeries, coverage that reflected the loyal following the cafe built long before its legal troubles began. With the Coronado shop's closure, that 12-year run through Roosevelt Street, Van Buren Street, south Phoenix and Coronado will come to an end this month.
