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Gio Barreto, Running Latte Coffee · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey, good morning, Ryan Wolt from the Coffee People podcast
• 0:04
  here. Please head to
• 0:05
  coffeepeoplepodcast.com and subscribe to our newsletter.
• 0:08
  We really appreciate it. Or on your favorite podcast
• 0:11
  platform. We're here in Bend, OR.
• 0:13
  We're going to be visiting some friends at Watershed Coffee
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  Roasters. Met these guys at Coffee Fest
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  Portland last year. And while I'm getting a cup of
• 0:22
  coffee, I hope that you are listening to this episode of the
• 0:25
  Coffee People podcast from Coffeefest New York 2026.
• 0:57
  We're live. We're live, so we are recording.
• 1:00
  We are now. Live.
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  We are not live. I don't trust myself not to say
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  something dumb. My name is Ryan.
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  I'm. Geo welcome.
• 1:08
  To the Coffee People podcast, the only time I'll ask you to
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  stare at the camera. Tell us who you're here at
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  Coffee Fest with and what you do there.
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  So I'm here with my two sisters. We just opened up a coffee shop
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  in Bergenfield, NJ, running Latte Cafe.
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  You know, we're here just to get all a lot of like, you know,
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  great feedback, great, you know, ideas for the cafe.
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  Obviously, we're freshly into the business.
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  I've been in the hospital business for over 20 years.
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  Yeah, my sisters, they. So you know better.
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  Yeah, exactly, Exactly. But yeah, they, they, my sister
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  used to work for the Children's Hospital.
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  Like marketing my sister, you know, she does like she's a
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  chemist for like Pringles and all that.
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  They do favors. But besides that, you know, the
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  love and everything for coffee came from a lot from their side.
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  My our dads grew up together in Colombia in a coffee farm, you
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  know, so that it was always in our blood.
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  Then going in the summers, you know, going to the coffee farm,
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  working in the coffee farm, seeing all that growing up with
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  it. I'll have Colombia have Mexican,
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  they have Colombia have Ecuadorian.
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  So this is kind of like, you know, our first name.
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  Actually, our idea was like La Sala, which means like the
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  living room, because that's where we always would meet with
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  the family and everything. It would just be like coffee.
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  So you mean the living room over coffee?
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  Yeah. So they had like a prepackaged
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  business before this, like coffee business.
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  So they were already kind of getting into the business.
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  I was always, my dream was to open a restaurant, always been
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  in the industry. So, you know, one day our dad
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  was like, hey, you guys should unite and we should do something
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  or whatever. And we started looking around,
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  we started to have meetings and whatever.
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  And then we ended up where we ended up.
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  You know, we found the location in Facebook Market.
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  Oh wow. What we didn't really want like
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  a kitchen or we didn't want like a big space.
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  We wanted to start small. Then we saw this place which is,
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  you know, we've been very blessed and grateful to, to have
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  find it and it gave us a lot of ideas and vision and everything.
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  So we really put everything together, you know, for like 6
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  months while it was being, you know, redone and you know,
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  making it, making it how we wanted the vision to be.
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  We just started visiting a bunch of coffee shops, got ideas and
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  we put them all together and we open this beautiful spot now.
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  So if I were to come to the spot tomorrow, my day off, what's the
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  vibe? What's the?
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  Experience it's all about so you come in, you know, our number
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  one thing was to have like aesthetic.
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  You know, I think it's huge right now nowadays with like
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  Instagram and TikTok and everything is to just wow
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  people. We didn't want the name to
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  scream Colombia. So that's why we chose like
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  running late, running latte actually, but it goes kind of
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  hand in hand with running late because us Hispanics are always
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  running late. So that and then I also do run.
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  So my next race is Jersey City. My first full marathon is in
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  Philly. So, you know, it's all health
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  and wealth and community driven. So #1 aesthetic #2 what is like
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  the coffee? Obviously, because we're a cafe.
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  So we did definitely wanted to invest a lot into that.
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  And three, food, you know, we definitely want to add food,
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  great food, small menu, just to see what, you know, what sells,
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  what doesn't grow from there. Expand as we go, but yeah, so
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  aesthetic coffee food. With the coffee part of it and
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  the family history in the coffee farming, any focus on that or
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  any connection back to farms that you.
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  May have so our goal is to hopefully, you know, go back to
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  our roots and really dive into hopefully, you know, getting our
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  farm back up. Right now we are getting beans
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  from a roaster that is from our town in Columbia.
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  So we are still using straight from our roots.
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  It's just not our farm, but we're still very familiar and
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  very, you know, close with them. And eventually, you know, that
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  that's our goal is to get out there and really, you know, side
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  by side, learn about our coffee a little bit more.
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  The grow the the bean process the you know the whole process
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  in general. Very cool.
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  When you're out and about, you know you're not at work.
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  Today. He would have stopped into
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  someone else's coffee shop. What are you going to order?
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  So my go to right now honestly has been a ice shaking espresso.
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  I think just tasting espresso is my main thing.
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  I feel like when you put too much milk or syrups or anything
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  it's just taking away from the flavour of the coffee.
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  But yeah, that or a cortado. So sorry, you said ice shake and
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  espresso, which is not an answer anyones ever given on the shot.
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  So like a martini almost right? Yeah.
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  Pretty much, yeah. So I've been a bartender for a
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  while. So just that whole like, it's
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  always been like even when I trained, because I used to open
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  restaurants for California Pizza Kitchen.
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  I think the biggest thing when I trained the bar was, you know,
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  everybody likes the show. So not only just the coffee
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  machine itself, you know, that people are like, oh, wow, look
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  at the machine, look at this kind of thing.
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  It's more of like what we're doing behind the scenes.
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  And I what I've been, you know, with the baristas and my sisters
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  and everything because they're more front of the house.
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  I'm more back. I'm the one that kind of created
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  the menu and everything for the cafe.
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  It's always about giving the show, you know, multitasking,
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  talking to the guests, learning, getting to know the guests, you
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  know, because that's the only way we're going to get them
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  back, the only way of really interacting with them and
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  actually finding out who they are and why they came in.
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  You never know who you're going to talk to.
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  And I've met so many people just bartending in general.
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  And I think a lot of young people nowadays, the young
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  generation, love like the yeah, man, I don't know.
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  Do you find just because you've got, I know you have experienced
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  how long run, long run of experience in hospitality and
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  you mentioned multitasking, do you find it hard not to be doing
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  two or three things in your head at once when you're in your
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  normal life? I'm still trying to juggle
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  everything right now. You know, right now it's just,
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  it doesn't even feel real. I feel like we're playing
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  restaurant right now. Like I said, we've only, we've
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  only been like 6 weeks in. We've been blessed and grateful.
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  But yeah, it's just like creating those.
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  Like like I said, I used to train and open restaurants.
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  So you have to create those systems for everything to flow
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  the way it should flow. So I think right now that's what
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  I'm doing. Like I'm, we're creating systems
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  to make our place more efficient, just not for us, but
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  just for the guests to where it doesn't look as like chaotic,
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  you know, so it doesn't matter if there's 345 people in here.
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  We had a run club event that we had 100 plus people that came
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  in, you know, so that, you know, obviously the multitasking comes
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  in a lot. But yes, I, I'm multitasking
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  right now. I'm off right now and I feel
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  like I'm still thinking about. What we're doing here.
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  So yeah, yeah, yeah, our ideas I'm like on food or or drinks or
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  what are we doing next? I always tell my wife she's like
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  a duck where it's kind of just it's cruising along, but
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  underneath, yeah, crazy, crazy. Yeah, but it's all about how you
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  how you hold on, hold on. Like you could be crazy inside,
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  but just the way you show it makes a difference to to
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  everybody, yourself, to the guest and stuff like that.
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  Well, I certainly appreciate that and I appreciate your time
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  and Congrats on the that's amazing, man.
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  Thanks for having me in, you know, I hope you know, I gave
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  you enough information about our place and.
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  Tell us how we can find you before we go.
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  So we're on right now. We're trying to get our site up,
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  but we have, we're on Instagram, TikTok, we're on YouTube, we're
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  on Facebook, just running Latte Cafe, Bergenfield, NJ.
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  We'll be waiting for you guys. Cheers.
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  Cheers. Perfect.
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  Thank you man. Appreciate it.
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  Thanks for having me. Bro that was awesome, Congrats
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  on the show. Hey everyone, thank you for
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  checking out Coffee People today.
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  We hope to see you at our Coffee Smarter Live podcast featuring
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  some great Coffee Smarter experts over the years.
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  That's going to be Thursday night, April 9th at 6:00 PM at
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  Coffee Cycle Roasting in Ocean Beach.
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  It's kind of a thank you to the Socal coffee industry who helped
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  us get our start. We appreciate you and hope to
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  see you there. And if not there, then let's
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  share a cup of coffee at the World of Coffee Expo.
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  And I, I asked that last question because I spent 30
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  years in hospitality and I find that it's very challenging now
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  that I'm not doing it every day. So like not be doing two or
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  three things at once. Like I feel uncomfortable all
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  the time.