New SLO County coffee shop opens in unique space. What’s on the menu?
A new coffee shop has opened its doors in SLO County — this one inside a reused shipping container.
Binx Coffee in downtown Atascadero celebrated its soft opening May 6, with homemade syrup lattes and sweet treats from Wendy White’s Bakery a few businesses down from the coffee shop.
“We wanted it to feel like a more organic presence to the community,” co-owner Cambria Lara told The Tribune. “We didn’t want to be under- or over-prepared, just seeing what fits best with the community and it was really great. We’re overjoyed to get the feedback and experience and support from the community.”
Co-owners Cambria and Tyler Lara moved from Long Beach to Atascadero the same month they got the lease for the shop’s space on 6090 El Camino Real.
“We’ve only been here for a few months, but it feels like we’re already so integrated in the community,” Lara said. “It’s just been so natural, and it feels like a sense of calmness and welcoming and almost like it was always meant to be.”
The coffee shop operates as a window service inside a white shipping container next door to Negranti Creamery and Colony Sandwich Company and shares outdoor seating with Ancient Owl Beer Garden.
Photos and prints of Binx the Jackalope, the logo and mascot of the shop, are all around the shipping container.
“A jackalope actually does represent success and luck, things like that,” Tyler Lara told The Tribune. “The things that the jackalope represented were playing hand-in-hand with what we felt when we were moving over here.”
Besides the cryptic meanings behind the mythical creature, Binx is also the nickname of the Laras’ son Zack, who the Laras said they “are doing this for to begin with.”
The Laras worked in the restaurant industry for over 10 years before opening up their coffee shop window, with Tyler Lara dreaming of becoming a Michelin star chef.
His big dreams also stretch to what the shop will one day become.
“I want to get to the point where my cup of coffee is almost like a farm-to-table experience in a cup, where you’re getting locally grown ingredients for your syrup, you’re getting locally farmed milk,” Tyler Lara said. “The only thing that can’t be local really, is coffee, but I still try to get it to that in the cup.”
What’s on the menu at new Atascadero coffee shop?
Binx Coffee serves specialty lattes like its most popular coconut caramel latte and strawberries and cream latte served with syrups made in-house.
The coffee window also serves matcha, tea, hot chocolate, pour over, house drip and a blue, plant-based Lotus Energy drink.
“The concept of all the drinks I’m going to be doing truly is going to be seasonal, where if that fruit is not in season, I’m not going to serve it at all,” Tyler Lara said. “All that kind of stuff is coming from the farmers market down the street. Whatever I can get locally fresh.”
The shop’s pastries, like chocolate chip cookies and croissants showcased in a glass display at the front of the shop, are from Wendy White’s Bakery.
In the future, the Laras want to expand the menu to include items like the Black Lotus drink, a nod toward the iconic card in the Magic: The Gathering trading card game.
Binx Coffee’s grand opening is set for the next three weeks, and the coffee shop’s hours are set to become more established as the Laras get used to operating their new business.
For more information
Binx Coffee at 6090 El Camino Real is open every day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is open later on Friday and Saturday until around 8 or 9 p.m.
For more information, visit its Instagram or call 562-505-2855.