According to a recent article from Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, Bonito Cafe y Mercadito will soon open its doors at 1351 E Olive Way.
“Our goal opening date is May 1st! We host a monthly Mercado event (Aqui Mercado) that has been going on for about 10 months now. Bonito grew from that foundation.”
“Ismael and I are both Hispanic and from California, and we moved to Seattle about six years ago. When we arrived, we were actively searching for the culture we know. We didn’t see much of it, and we then decided to host our Mercado event and see who turns out,” Daniel and Ismael Calderon, the owners, told What Now Seattle.
“We kept growing from there. This is our next step, as we now have about 40 plus vendors, a DJ, and a bar. Our thought was around how we could take that one night a month and instead make it an everyday experience.”
“So, we went back to our roots and landed on coffee. Coffee has always been a big thing as a connecting point. From there, we decided to dive into that. The focus is not to change the coffee game, but more so to create a space that is inspired by our roots and is also inclusive.”
“We both are very much people people. We both have experience in the hospitality and/or customer service industries. With that, when you enter Bonito, we want customers to be greeted as soon as you walk in. We want it to be more than the traditional “what can I get you” vibe,” Daniel added.
“The name Bonito comes from the greeting instead of buenas. So, as you would say, Buenos Dias, instead it would be Bonito Dias. We want a really friendly greeting. The Bonito side of it will be a friendly coffee shop that is also tied into Latin culture, while Mercadito pays homage to the monthly event. We will be focusing on Latinx, POC, and queer businesses with Mercadito,” Ismael stated.
“We have been together for 12 years, going on 13 years now. We’re originally from Bakersfield, California but have been in Seattle for 6 years. We started by opening creative studios, where we opened one during the pandemic, and now have three including Bonito and the monthly market. One of the goals has always been creating queer-owned, POC-owned spaces.”
“Coming from a small town where we were not seeing those spaces or having those places, we always had this goal of creating a new beginning and exploration of avenues. We will always have an affordable opportunity for creatives. Mercaditos vendors are all predominately POC, queer creators as well. We plan to keep every hand that goes into building and weaving this net as having some Latin/Latinx, POC, or queer background.”
