When Denise Maldonado started working at a coffee shop in 2011, she never planned for it to become her career.
It was just supposed to be a way to make some money after high school, but after graduating from Cal State Long Beach in 2016, Maldonado found herself unhappy with her job as a counselor, and the world of coffee called her back.
“In 2017, I quit my job and jumped in on this full-time. I haven’t looked back since,” she said.
Now, Maldonado is the proud owner of Confidential Coffee, a downtown shop that just celebrated its seventh anniversary on Sept. 27.
“It’s kind of wild,” Maldonado said. “I feel like the first year went so slow, … then out of nowhere, we’re celebrating seven years.”
For the seventh anniversary, Maldonado wanted to find a way to not only celebrate Confidential Coffee but also to give back to neighbors and a customer base that has been there for her.
The shop donated seven-and-a-half percent of its anniversary proceeds to Spanish Sin Pena’s scholarship fund, which helps people of Latin American heritage take Spanish classes to help them reconnect with the language and their culture. Another seven-and-a-half percent of the proceeds went to supporting the production of a short film entitled “My Dad’s A Monster!”
Part of Maldonado’s motivation was paying back the kindness that had been shown to her.
In recent years, when her shop was broken into at least eight times, the community showed up in support, she said.
And one moment that’s stuck with her, she said, was a chance encounter in Mammoth Lakes when she met a group of people from Arizona that talked about how much they loved Confidential Coffee, not realizing she owned it.
“That’s always a reminder of like, I’m tired, I’m stressed, whatever, [but] it’s making people happy, keep going,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado also makes a point of sharing her Mexican heritage through Confidential Coffee and its decor, namely a large mural of Frida Kahlo in the center of the shop, and the menu, which boasts several Mexican-inspired specialty drinks such as the mazapan latte, the rompope latte, and the seasonal matcha horchata.
Maldonado doesn’t just take inspiration from her culture; she takes inspiration from her family as well. The shop’s name is a nod to her older brother, who died 13 years ago.
Maldonado and her brother bonded over their shared love of music, particularly Los Angeles-based rapper The Game. The Game’s Instagram handle is @losangelesconfidential, and Maldonado wanted to use a play on that. She eventually landed on Confidential Coffee.
“It’s nice, because it’s not something obvious, [and when] I see it, I think about my brother,” Maldonado said. “He’s the reason why I am motivated to keep going every day.”
Confidential Coffee, 137 W Sixth St., is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.