Written by Josh Stuyvesant
Thinking back, one of the most curious things about the ‘90s was the coffee shop that stood backdrop to so many scenes in TV’s Friends. Aside from Monica’s apartment, the friends would cascade into the Central Perk coffee shop to talk the latest gossip, commiserate with each other on whatever that week’s plot point was, and altogether socialize. I mean, isn’t that what bars and alcohol are for?
Anymore, coffee shops are predominantly places that exist less for casual and escapist visits and more for business and purposeful meetings. In fact, while I write this, I’m sitting in Zendo, a coffee shop off 2nd street in Albuquerque’s Downtown. My notebook is sprawled like the rest of my instruments (I’m one of those café people) on a newly refurbished table by local artist Rocky Norton. Rocky is one of the most regular regulars here. The tables didn’t necessarily require refurbishing. In fact, they were beautiful before, but Pilar Westell, Zendo’s owner, hired Rocky to redo the counter and coffee bar to add a little extra space to house the elements required for her exemplary coffee, and Rocky insisted that he redo the tops of Zendo’s signature family-style, woodworked tables to keep the aesthetic flow of the space. He didn’t have to, nor was he hired to; he simply insisted.
That’s probably because Zendo is not like other places. It is a return to form in the world of coffee shops. It is an organism, a living thing kept alive and invested in by other living things. I could go on and on about the life-giving quality of its coffee, but we ought not gauge a café’s success on that alone. As a wifi leech who rotates between ten or so cafés throughout Albuquerque, I can assertively say that Zendo is the best at connecting people. In creating Zendo, Pilar has poured unique, tasty life into a device-infested, modern-day café. Here’s how:
She opened up Downtown. Zendo launched in June 2013. Whether you look at it as supply courting demand or demand seducing supply, Pilar knew her market and moved right in. But Pilar’s choice of location was met with doubt. “They asked me, ‘Aren’t you afraid of opening a place in that dangerous and crime-ridden part of town?’” Pilar says. “But there’s nothing to be afraid of. I love Downtown because there’s such a variety of people who live and work here. If more people come down here to see all amazing and beautiful people making amazing and beautiful things, then Downtown becomes not scary at all.”
The diversity of downtown is never so easily seen than over the rim of a Zendo coffee mug. The space is constantly full of downtown denizens, townies, socialites, suits, coveralls, and shoppers, all drawn to the same artfully done coffee. No matter where we’re from, our addiction to caffeine makes us all equal.
She doesn’t just hang art; she shows it. The difference is in the precision. Not unlike the way she makes a latté—carefully, unhurriedly, sure-footedly—Pilar curates and broadcasts the art in a way that says it’s more important than decoration. She even pays someone to professionally hang it. She says, “It lends itself to this idea of building community. Art is a way to showcase what everybody’s doing in this town.”
Pilar embraces the artistic community in a way that is most unique. It was artists, after all, who built this place, who created Albuquerque’s first parklet at its front stoop, who pour the coffee, etc.
The whole shop radiates a collaborative effort to provide the most interesting venue for drinking the most well-poured stuff out there.
She owns as much an art gallery as she does a coffee shop. Pilar plans openings on the first Friday of every month, contributing to the already warm welcome Downtown Albuquerque sees in the name of art.
She welcomes metamorphosis. “Welcomes” might even be too soft a word. Pilar directs metamorphosis. The purposeful, monthly art shows notwithstanding, Pilar is always striving to change for the better. When she says, “The beauty of coffee is you can get a million different flavors. If you become complacent, you’re never going to continue to succeed. We’re constantly upping the game when it comes to our beans,” she’s talking as much about her coffee shop as she is her coffee. She persistently introduces new aspects to the unlikely storefront, like the parklet that took back a portion of the street from cars, and gave it to people. Pilar is a business owner, yes, but more than that she is a revitalizing force for Downtown.
Zendo is evidence of a change in Downtown, and in the coffee scene in general. What Pilar and Zendo have done best is create a place where people gather for the sake of gathering as often as they do for the sake of leeching wifi. Even if you’re in and out, you must wait a little longer while your coffee is adroitly made. You’re asked to linger in the sense of community that this place evokes.
Zendo has rubbed the defibrillators together and zapped the chest of Downtown. She has filled Downtown’s Southeastern corner with life in every effort, endeavor, and cup poured.
