Today we’d like to introduce you to Mateo Toro.
Hi Mateo, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Bogota, Colombia. I am a musician and recording engineer by trade who absolutely fell in love with L.A when I moved here to study music and music business at Musicians Institute Hollywood back in 2012.
Back then, I was just a punk rock kid with a slight addiction to motorcycles, video games and entrepreneurship. I met a guy called Gene riding motorcycles during that time, and we remained good friends for almost a decade. When I moved back to Colombia, after graduating from my music program we kept in touch and were always talking about when we would be able to ride together again (We’ll come back to Gene below)
In 2016 my wife Paula and I came to L.A., because she wanted to see this amazing city for the first time, and after a few days here, we decided this was the place where we wanted to be and where we wanted our future family to grow its roots.
Right after we got home, we started thinking about ways we could use to move to L.A and be able to sustain a life here. We knew a group of friends that had an architectural hardwood business in Colombia that had started operating in Miami a few years before, and after a few months of discussing it, we decided we could start the U.S West division of their hardwood business and become partners.
We finally moved to L.A in 2018, to start the hardwood business and, boy, it was an adventure! We had little knowledge about wood, installations, architectural design and didn’t even know what we were importing, to be honest. All we knew is we had to make this work and were willing to learn anything and everything required to be successful with the business and in our new life here.
A funny story about that time was that I learned how to drive a forklift and a full-size truck using just YouTube! It was a crazy learning experience that took us to participate on huge house projects in the Hollywood Hills and Pacific Palisades and to work with industry-leading project developers in just under 3 years.
We were thriving, had just moved to a new, bigger warehouse, and COVID hit. Our business kept on going, construction was doing very well initially, but around early 2021 the economic repercussions started to show when there was a big shortage of shipping containers and hardwood prices started to go through the roof, so we were forced to start thinking about plan B.
We always wanted to get into the coffee business because we just loved the sense of community around coffee shops, and of course, we loved coffee just from being Colombian and growing up around it. Also, Paula did her University thesis on small coffee farmer trading structures and got first-hand experience in coffee at a farm near Popayan, Cauca, one of the leading Colombian coffee-producing regions.
We had a coffee business idea for quite some time, even before we started the hardwood business, about opening a small format easy going specialty coffee shop; something more accessible, something where you didn’t have to be an expert in order to enjoy a good cup of coffee and a coffee shop where we could share the Latin American coffee culture we grew up in, with people from other countries and cultures.
It was time, we decided this was definitely our plan B and we jumped right into it. We love to learn throughout the process, we feel that’s how you truly learn a craft; by just doing it.
Initially, we were going to open Distrito, as a takeout only concept, with a friend that’s already in the coffee business. He has a very successful coffee brand here in L.A and he liked the initial concept that we had. But right after we started with the initial steps, he noticed he already had a lot on his plate and decided to take a step back and let us build the coffee shop by ourselves.
Remember my friend Gene from back in 2012? Well, he and his girlfriend Kari had just moved to a city called San Pedro, which is in the south end of L.A, and invited us over to see his new place. This was our first time in San Pedro and we absolutely fell in love with it. It felt like a tiny little town, everyone was super friendly and they all seemed to know each other, which reminded us of Colombia. San Pedro was the diverse, fun and community-oriented environment that we had always imagined we would open our dream coffee shop in.
Paula was getting into interior design back then so she started doing the initial renderings of what would be our shop, as well as doing all of the city permitting paperwork on a beautiful little location we had found in Downtown San Pedro, right smack in the middle of the arts district.
I, on my end, started diving deep into coffee science, going to coffee trade shows to learn about the business, and visiting different coffee shops every single day where I could learn how they operated. Also met a few friends inside the coffee industry that started to help us with recommendations on equipment, layout, ingredients etc… They were a critical piece of the buildout process and we will be forever grateful to them.
We started building in June 2021. And here we were again. Learning through YouTube, scrambling to understand what permits we needed, how to process them and dealing with the craziness of opening a business in a city like L.A. It wasn’t easy, at all, but at the same time it was a very fulfilling process in which we learned a lot. It tested us to the extreme mentally, physically and financially but we knew we were onto something and had to keep pushing.
While Paula was pulling permits and dealing with the architects, I was reading espresso science books and testing over 60 types of coffee, Gene was constantly updating an endless sheet with all of our financials and Kari was pouring concrete into our future coffee tables. It was absolutely crazy! We were all doing everything we could to open this place up and finally be able to serve good coffee to the Pedro community.
Our friend Julian, who used to be our business partner in Colombia, decided to join us in the process. He was living in NYC during COVID and moved to L.A to help us organize all the logistics of our business. Without him, this wouldn’t have been possible either. He is now the reason why we have coffee in stock, pastries delivered every morning, and all the ingredients we need to make the magic happen.
Talking about the community, we are extremely thankful for the San Pedro community. They literally welcomed us with open arms and we felt their support from day 1. They were all cheering for us, our neighbors were helping us with construction stuff, random people we’ve never seen before were visiting us daily to give us major good vibes… And all that warmth is really what kept us going. Knowing that we would be able to serve this wonderful community soon, just fueled us through the entire process.
After all this craziness, around December 2022, we finally got our COO from the city and clearance from all the departments to be able to open to the public. We quickly put together a grand opening event, announced it to the few people that were following us in socials and opened our doors January 5th, 2023.
Ever since we’ve been able to welcome amazing humans (and their furry companions) into our space. They are finally tasting a little bit of our culture and sharing theirs with us. We cannot be happier than when we hear “Oh wow!” from a guest when sipping for the first time on a Colombian Agua de Panela, or a latte made with our Colombia, Honduras, Ethiopia blend that we use for espresso. It makes everything worth it!
Our entire concept revolves around sharing Latin American coffee culture, so, as a multi-roaster coffee shop, we have partnered with brands like Proyecto Diaz Coffee, Offshore Tea, Mirror Coffee Roasters and most recently Picaresca which are all brands led by incredible humans with huge hearts and passion for what they do, but that also roast absolutely amazing Latin American coffees and great teas that we can confidently share with our guests.
We still have many things to learn, many mistakes to make, and many changes to embrace, but we are happy to be here for it all and we definitely look forward to the future!
Salud!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest challenge was always doing things blindly and just going with the flow. We didn’t really know much about specialty coffee or how to run a restaurant, so it was hard to get up to speed and learn on the fly.
It was also a big financial challenge because all we had was a bit of saving from our previous ventures, and the support of our friends and family.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We created Distrito Coffee to share the Latin American coffee culture we grew up in, with people from other cultures. Being Colombian we didn’t want to focus just in Colombian coffees but also shine a light on the amazing offering from other Latin America countries and that is what you’ll find in our grinders and our shelves.
We use only the best ingredients in the market to make every single drink. We use organic milk exclusively, locally sourced honey, direct-trade Colombian panela and cacao to make our chocolate, and we purchase beans only from small businesses that we know support farmers directly.
What does success mean to you?
Success, to me personally, is being able to have a good life (Whatever that means individually) by doing something you love, with people you love, in a place that gets the best out of you.
I personally don’t find myself successful in anything, unless it greatly benefits others too. To be successful you have to be a loving, passionate person who does things for the benefit of yours and others.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.distritocoffee.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/distritocoffee
- Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/distrito-coffee-san-pedro
Image Credits
Alexander Kawasaki
