'I want this to be puro San Antonio' | Local resident opens coffee shop and café at St. Paul Square
SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio resident opened a new coffee shop in the historic downtown district across the street from The Espee.
El Tigre Coffee Roasters, located at 123 Heisman St., serves high quality coffee and specialty drinks from lattes, espressos to drip coffee, teas, and more. One of their signature drinks is the mushroom cacao, which reportedly tastes like a chocolate chip cookie.
They also offer an all-new food menu where early-bird customers can choose from barbacoa or chicken tinga tacos (which are served all day long) avocado toast, ricotta jelly toast and various pastries.
The lunch rush will then see a myriad of different options like pulled brisket with a coffee rub, fresh-made chicken sandwiches and more.
"There's been an an evolution in the coffee world. There's a lot of specialty coffee, there's a lot of special things. So, what we wanted to do was to just have a really high quality of coffee, a cup of coffee. Wanted it feel like, you know, I crave a cup of coffee and let's just do the classics," said Owner Tatanka Guerrero.
"And that was really our biggest thing let's just create simplicity great. That's what we wanted it to be. From our food offerings to our coffee and all of that, just to make it as simple and enjoyable as possible."
The employees at El Tigre, many of whom are San Antonio natives, also put a lot of effort into creating an approachable and non-pretentious atmosphere.
"I love the city of San Antonio. I really love the people here. And I wanted to reverse engineer from that. Let's do it from the people, making sure we check off the obvious boxes, which is going to be coffee, which is going to be attention and service and hospitality and put that energy there," Guerrero said.
"I want you to feel excited and happy to come to the coffee shop because it feels comfortable, it feels homey, it feels approachable," he added.
El Tigre also roasts their own coffee beans which come from Brazil and Honduras while many of their partnerships are with local vendors from the Alamo City like Glo & Des Sourdough Bakery and Crumbs bakery.
"Our whole idea is we want to be a Texas brand," Guerrero said.
The new brick-and-mortar location will have a grand opening celebration on March 15 from 11 a.m. to 3p.m. with cumbias, vendors, music, food and drinks.
"I want this to be puro San Antonio. And that's one of the reasons that I say I want my staff and my team to be the forefront and the personality, image of this place. I want it to be San Antonio, I want to build something that is for San Antonio," Guerrero said.
El Tigre's soft opening hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
The San Antonio coffee shop will follow in the footsteps of the flagship coffee shop located in East Austin, which opened in 2019.
Guerrero said he is also working on other concepts like a cocktail bar and bistro eatery in San Antonio.
