Boston Bartending Veteran Will Isaza Is Launching a Cocktail-Inspired Coffee Shop in East Boston - Eater Boston
"Will Isaza, an acclaimed bartender known for his work helping to launch a slew of top cocktail destinations in Boston, including Blossom Bar and Birds of Paradise, is branching out on his own. The industry vet has announced that he plans to open Cafe Gloria — a coffee shop rooted in Isaza’s Colombian heritage and informed by his bartending career — in East Boston later this year. The cafe will offer a range of coffee drinks and non-alcoholic cocktails to start, Isaza says. He is partnering with local roastery Broadsheet Coffee to source and roast the beans, which will include a signature roast based on a Colombian coffee bean. On the food side, Isaza will stock the cafe with arepas and South American-inspired rice bowls based on his mom’s recipes. Isaza plans to outfit the space with an actual coffee bar where people can sit and converse over drinks while watching baristas, in the same way that customers would sit at a cocktail bar. Given Isaza’s bartending background, he hopes to add alcoholic cocktails in the future if he can get his hands on one of Boston’s astronomically expensive, impossible-to-obtain liquor licenses, he says, but he’s not betting on it. Even without the license, he plans to reinvent one of his most famous cocktails for the cafe. The Gloria is an aged rum-based cocktail made with passionfruit cinnamon cordial, coffee liquor, and mascarpone that won Isaza recognition on national and international stages. At Cafe Gloria, Isaza is converting the drink into a passionfruit cinnamon latte topped with a mascarpone foam. The cafe will be located in Isaza’s home neighborhood of East Boston, on Maverick Street in Jeffries Point. It’s an area near Logan where coffee shops are scarce outside of the airport locations of Dunkin’ and Starbucks, and Isaza says he’s seen residents turn to delivery apps to order their coffee from Tatte and other spots in the Seaport." - Erika Adams
