Golden Hour Coffee blends Oaxacan, Laotian and Vietnamese cultures on SE Hawthorne

Andrea and Honorio De Jesus Martinez didn’t grow up drinking the same kind of coffee. For Andrea, it was sweetened with condensed milk, a Vietnamese staple. For Honario, it was the familiar scent of Folgers brewing at 5 a.m., sweetened with sugar and cinnamon, the way his dad made it.

Now, the married couple are blending their backgrounds — Oaxacan, Laotian and Vietnamese — into Golden Hour Coffee, a new café on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. Taking over the former Seven Virtues Coffee Roasters space, they’ve reimagined the shop with what they call “sprinkles” of their culture.

“We want people to walk in and immediately be touched by a warm embrace, a moment of a golden hour,” Andrea said.

​​Those cultural “sprinkles” show up in the menu, which features espresso drinks, teas and seasonal specials such as a mango matcha latte (a nod to mango sticky rice) and a salted caramel shaken espresso. They also partner with La Casa De Mama, a Portland-based vegan Mexican bakery, to offer conchas (Mexican sweet bread) and alfajores (dulce de leche–filled cookies) alongside bagels, muffins, cookies and gluten-free options.

But for the Martinezes, the action behind the cultural components is what matters most.

“It’s more than just like hanging a Mexican flag or hanging something that represents Vietnam,” Honorio said. “For me, being Mexican, if you’ve ever gone to a Mexican household, you’re walking through the door and handed a drink, you’re handed food. It’s that warm feeling. That’s what I feel our culture is like.”

The Martinezes opened Golden Hour in early April, bringing their entrepreneurial experience from past ventures. In 2021, the Martinezes opened PupScrub, a self-serve dog wash and grooming business in Gresham. Andrea also runs Events by Andrea M., a wedding planning business she’s owned for eight years.

According to Andrea, their new venture is a way of taking up space in the coffee industry, as well as making space for others. In three months of being open, the duo have already hosted a variety of cultural communities and events in their space including Latinas Running Across Portland, a Gresham-based run club; Cycle Homies, a collective of cyclists and DJs; and a pop-up dance party with DJ Bazooka.

“I’ve told this to other local community clubs and makers, ‘Look, we already pay the rent, so use our space,’ ” Andrea said. “ ‘Use it to showcase what you have worked so hard on. Use it to show your culture, your tradition. You don’t have to be Asian, you don’t have to be Hispanic. We’re open to it all.’ ”

The Martinezes have found that the warm and welcoming atmosphere they create has been returned by their customers in full.

“Whatever you put out there, you’re gonna get in return,” Andrea said. “We put out excellent warm customer service. And what we got in return was excellent warm hugs.”

Beyond making specialty coffee more accessible and welcoming, they hope to create a third space where people can build strong friendships and cultural community. As lifelong Portlanders, the couple rarely saw their cultures represented in the coffee industry.

“We felt that this was an opportunity for us to make something that we didn’t see growing up,” Honorio said about specialty coffee shops. “People working there didn’t look like us or couldn’t relate to us. … That was one of the big driving factors of it all.”

As children of immigrants, the Martinezes were inspired to open their businesses by their parents’ sacrifices and resilience. They hope to honor their respective cultures by fostering an environment that is judgment-free and accepting of all cultures and backgrounds.

“We love partnering with community clubs or local makers,” Andrea said, “so that voices that maybe often go unheard and traditions that honestly should be seen and felt — that way we can give a space to that. … Because why not? Culture should be celebrated every day.”

If you go: 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. daily; 3538 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.; goldenhourcoffeeco.com