After Sabrina Arellano opened Coffinated Coffee in La Puente in October 2022, the coffee shop’s Instagram account gained 41,000 followers. Coffinated Coffee has a menu of drinks inspired by quintessential horror movies, games, TV shows and books. It was Arellano’s grandmother who first turned her onto all things horror. On Saturday, Arellano opened the shop’s second location on First Street in Downtown Long Beach.
The Long Beach Post sat down with Arellano to learn more about Coffinated Coffee and its spooky menu. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How did Coffinated Coffee come to be?
My grandma and I grew up loving everything horror and spooky-related. We were really close, so I get a lot of the demented, dark humor from her. I love it, but she got really sick – she had cancer – and so I [put everything] on pause to take care of her. In 2021, she passed at home. This was kind of like my grieving project because I had been telling her [that] I was learning how to do coffee on the side. I liked to pick up a bunch of hobbies and learn new trades – and she was like, “You should just do it.”
What are some of your favorite memories with your grandma and horror?
We used to do haunted houses together when I was younger. Everybody and their mom from the block would come out and line up, and my grandma would be out there like, “I’m gonna veto your costume! You can’t come in if it’s not cool enough, or if it’s not scary enough!” She was really cracked like that.
Or she would check my weekly report card, and she’d be like, “Okay, there are enough B’s on there. We’re gonna go to Wienerschnitzel to get chili cheese fries, and then we’re going to binge whatever.” She was really fixated on “The X-Files” for a while, and then it went to “Alien vs. Predator.” Then she’d be like, “But don’t tell your mom, because if you get a nightmare, I’m in trouble.”
Do you know why she liked horror so much?
My grandma grew up in an orphanage, and she had a really hard life. She was born in East LA and a couple of years later, her family was separated. She ended up in an orphanage in Michoacán, Mexico. She was there for a really long time. When she turned 16 or 17, she came back to the U.S., and she worked at a glass factory; then she retired early. After that, she was kind of the one to take care of the family. We all grew up with my grandma just being like, “Life is hard; I’d rather disassociate and watch this because none of this is kind of real. I’m not afraid of stuff like this.” I think that’s why she liked it so much.
Why do you like horror?
When I grew up with it, I used to get scared a little bit. [But eventually,] I was like, “Oh, you’re so right, it’s actually kind of funny.” It’s just appreciating the visual effects. I really like a lot of the practical stuff, like what you get in “Terrifier” or “V/H/S.” Those are really cool. It’s somebody’s own art. I love it.
There’s a good sense of community around horror. I think growing up a little more alternative, everybody was like a family in this community. I feel very safe in this space.
What is your favorite horror movie and why?
Probably “Tusk.” [Director] Kevin Smith is kind of cracked. I love it being gross and disturbing for a lot of people, but also just like Justin Long. You can’t resist a Justin Long movie. He just plays a character so well. Like, you could hate his character so bad, and he’s still going to give you the best performance of his life. I think Kevin Smith is one of the best directors out there. It’s also just like a comfort film. I would say a lot of people don’t like that movie, but I think it’s fun. It’s a good time. Other than “Predator,” that’s probably my most fixated movie. And I like “Predator” because Arnold Schwarzenegger is just that man.
How do you come up with your menu?
The menu is kind of whatever we’re fixated on. I like to brainstorm with the team. I think it’s really fun to include them. I also think it’s cool to include the community. So whenever we come up with new themes, now we’ll put it on Instagram, and we’ll put it on Facebook, and we’ll literally be like, “What do you want to see?” So literally this whole new menu was because of what everybody voted for.
When it comes to actually doing the menus, I don’t want to just call it “The Obsession Drink” or “The Freddy [Fazbear] Drink.” I feel like that doesn’t show you really put a lot of effort into that. We fixate in the sense that we’re like, “Okay, it’s 3 a.m., and we’re gonna play the game, we’re gonna watch [the movie], read the book,” and then I’m like, “Okay, so in this [movie scene] they drank like this flavor, or this is their thing.” There’s a lot of fan effort for us. Making sure drinks [look], taste and sound like what they’re going to be is a big thing for what we do. If there is something in there that alludes to a character flavor-wise, we try to do that first before the vibe. If we can’t find flavors in that, but there’s like a bunch of cool names for its characters, we’ll follow a color scheme.
Do you have a favorite drink on the menu?
The “No-Clipping” [a chocolate Milano mocha with a banana cinnamon cream top]. I love “Backrooms.” Kane Parsons did his big one with that. It was also like a practical set, so that was really sick to see him do. But me and a banana mocha — that’s my drink. I want to say at the La Puente shop, [“No Clipping”] is the top one. That or the Las Plagas [a Spanish latte with brown sugar cold foam], our “Resident Evil” drink. That one’s really good too.
What is your favorite thing about owning this business?
It’s really cool to see it feel like a safe space for some people. The other day, a mom came in, and she was telling me, “My son and I are estranged, and I found you on TikTok and he was talking about this movie, so I thought I would take him [to your coffee shop]. You had board games, and literally that was like the longest I have talked to my son in years. Because of that, now we make an effort to have board game nights together, and we do stuff together, and I’m trying to understand who he is a little more.” That makes me really happy. I just want this to be a safe space for everybody. I want people to feel seen here.
Coffinated Coffee, 443 East First Street, Long Beach, CA 90802, is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. and is closed on Mondays.