See Soundtrack Coffee inside Chilte in downtown Phoenix
Local Phoenix businesses have been inviting coffee carts to take up residences in their spaces, like Soundtrack Coffee and Mexican restaurant Chilte.
Rent is expensive in 2026. That’s true for both residential and commercial real estate. As a result, more Americans than ever are opting to split rent with roommates to save money. And it’s becoming increasingly true for small business owners, as well. In Phoenix, that trend is most apparent within the coffee scene. In the last year, several coffee carts have opened inside businesses such as thrift shops, salons, wine bars, art galleries and even inside restaurants that serve their own food.
Such is the case for Joe Ramirez, who opened Soundtrack Coffee inside the downtown Phoenix Mexican restaurant Chilte. The Chilte team invited Ramirez to bring his coffee business to the restaurant after trying his drinks at a separate pop-up on Grand Avenue.
“They believe in what I’m doing,” Ramirez said.
Coffee shops and other small businesses have found a win-win scenario
The relationship between Chilte and Soundtrack is symbiotic.
Chilte does not open until 5 p.m., so Ramirez has complete control of the space during Soundtrack’s open hours from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Ramirez pays rent to the owner of Chilte for the hours that he uses the space. The full restaurant kitchen allows him to prepare all of his own syrups in house.
Beyond sharing the cost of rent, in many cases, adding a coffee shop also is a great way for a business to encourage more customers to come in, or stay longer than they would otherwise.
Fans from the following Ramirez nurtured in his pop-up days drive from all over the Valley to order his coffee and they often decide to come back to Chilte for dinner in the process. In the same vein, many curious Chilte diners see Soundtrack’s branding around the restaurant and decide to come back in the morning for coffee.
Such is also the case for Maleta, a unique coffee cart that opened earlier this year inside the Latino Arts and Cultural Center in downtown Phoenix. By launching Maleta, the art gallery now reaches a much larger audience on a daily basis.
“I love to see guests that come and purchase drinks from me and then head to the gift shop for the art gallery and leave with something from there,” said Maleta owner Maria Miranda. “Sales have definitely increased for the center since I arrived here, which is awesome.”
Coffee revitalizes business
Miranda has worked with the Latino Arts and Cultural Center on and off for close to a decade after first getting involved as part of an internship at ASU. She said the space is near and dear to her heart, and she knew for a long time that something needed to be done to liven it up and get more people in the door.
When she wasn’t doing work with Latino Arts, Miranda spent time working in restaurant kitchens around the Valley and she long dreamed of opening up her own coffee shop.
When she came up with the idea to open a coffee shop inside the Latino Arts and Cultural Center, it sounded like the best of both worlds. And if Maleta’s success during its first few months in business is anything to go by, it seems like the idea has paid off.
“It’s a circulating economy,” Miranda said. “Moving forward, I just want to create a great third space. It’s like a new wave of coffee, entering an old space and kind of reviving it, and bringing some life to businesses that are dying out a little bit.”
But it’s not just old businesses looking for a fresh start that are investing in coffee partners.
Shared spaces lower the barrier to entry for new coffee concepts
Indigo Room coffee shop took over the back room of Urban Collective vintage thrift store just a couple of months after it opened in Phoenix’s Coronado neighborhood.
Indigo Room’s cart fills a tiny space in the back corner of the shop. Guests frequently stumble upon it in a similar way they uncover other hidden treasures in the little vintage shop.
The close quarters can make it difficult to store large quantities of ingredients, but Indigo Room makes do by offering a tight menu of drinks that its baristas are proud of. And owner Quinn Unrein said the benefits overall outweigh any negatives.
“There’s a barrier to entry regarding costs if you’re trying to open a brick-and-mortar shop right out the gate,” Unrein said. “It seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to get our foot in the door and get started, while still being a relatively affordable option for us.”
Collaborations allow coffee businesses to grow at their own pace
Ramirez said he has no plans to open a standalone brick-and-mortar location of Soundtrack Coffee.
He said that if he ever was to leave Chilte for his own solo venture, he’d want to open a full-service restaurant or bar where he could serve food and cocktails, in addition to the coffee that earned him his following. But for the time being, he’s happy to share space with Chilte.
“I want to take it step by step. Like, is it going to be worth letting go of everything here?” Ramirez said. “Right now, I’m in the stage of finding people that I can trust to help grow the business, versus like, ‘I have all these ambitions, I don’t have my feet under me but let’s hire 20 people’, and then it loses the essence of what makes it so good.”
Miranda has a similar feeling about Maleta. She said it is important to her to “slow things down” and remain very intentional about her business and its offerings.
“I see a lot of brick-and-mortars open up and close and open up and close, and I’m just like, I can’t go into something where I’m not 100% sure it’s going to be successful. What if it doesn’t work out?” Ramirez said. “Right now, I don’t have an investor. Everything is self-funded, self-invested. So I don’t have anybody to pay back. I’m not gambling. Or I’m gambling with house money, basically.”
Reach the reporter at eddie.fontanez@azcentral.com. Follow @ERFontanez on Instagram.
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