Tucked behind a teal blue house on Hadley Street in Whittier, a coffee bar and speakeasy called Relapse Killer Brews has built a following for pairing Gothic, Halloween-themed artwork with a short menu of crowd-pleasing drinks. Owner Ruben Corvera runs the operation at 13107 Hadley St., where visitors walk around the side of his home to find a space he describes as both an artistic gathering spot and a caffeine stop.
According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Relapse offers four signature drinks that Corvera perfected with help from his daughter Devin. The standout is the Silver Bullet, a caramel latte nicknamed banana bread in a cup that has become the shop's bestseller, the outlet reports.
A Backyard Turned Into an Outdoor Speakeasy
Corvera bought the Hadley Street house 15 years ago and eventually transformed its backyard, which once held a five-car parking lot, into the outdoor area and speakeasy space that now anchors the business, per the same report. He has said he wanted to build somewhere artists and everybody else could gather, play music, talk and form friendships, with coffee as the thing that made it all come together.
The 50-year-old Corvera was born in Fountain Valley and raised in Whittier, where he grew up skateboarding and listening to punk rock before joining the Navy at 19, the station's report notes. He later worked for a gas company, retiring from the utility once his son and daughter were grown; his 28-year-old son is now raising his own family, while his daughter is in college.
Gothic Art, Inherited Paintings and an Old Tattoo Shop's Legacy
The shop's cozy, spooky Victorian ambiance comes partly from a life-sized painting of Vigo the Carpathian, along with copies of Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy and Sir Thomas Lawrence's Pinkie that Corvera inherited from his grandmother, the article notes. Pieces from Gentleman of Fortune Tattoo Company, Corvera's former tattoo shop at Leffingwell and First, also decorate the walls, and the shop's Dead Smile artwork draws on a pen drawing of a large-eyed Goth-y girl by Devon Corvera.
Corvera's art collective, The Wolf & Witch, is represented throughout the space as well. Relapse also produces Dead Smile apparel in-house and keeps a staff of four running day-to-day operations while hosting bands and artisans for pop-ups, according to the same account.
Friends, Followers and Plans to Travel
Corvera met friend Adrian Cuellar, a 41-year-old Whittier resident, about six years before the article's publication at Corvera's tattoo shop. Cuellar described Corvera as talented and kind in comments to the outlet, and the two now plan to travel to Germany next, with possible stops in Prague and Scotland afterward.
Corvera has said the support for Relapse Coffee grew organically, and the numbers back that up: the business has amassed 18,000 social media followers, many of whom have made their way into Whittier to visit in person and post about the experience online. The shop's Instagram account, @relapsekillerbrews, shares photos and videos from the space, including a post noting that a new collective was coming to Uptown Whittier.
