Three Questions with Coffee and Bakery Consultant Erica Escalante 

Erica Escalante. Courtesy photo.

Erica Escalante has always been motivated by curiosity, a desire to know why things work the way they do. 

She started in coffee at Starbucks in 2008, leaving two years later to learn more about barista craft and latte art at a neighborhood cafe in Portland, Oregon. At the new position, Escalante became fascinated by the business of coffee, working alongside the owner everyday and taking the opportunity to learn more. 

“I became known as the questions girl,” Escalante told DCN. “My boss would come in and say, ‘Just give me 10 minutes before you ask me anything.’”

Equipped with a notebook, Escalante would jot down questions and answers throughout the days: What do you do about this? How do you fix this? Why do you do this this way? The answers proved helpful when in 2012, at just 21 years of age, Escalante took ownership of the coffee shop, then called Arrow Coffeehouse.

Courtesy photo.

Escalante later rebranded the shop as Cafe Reina, opening a second location and building up the business alongside a sibling bakery venture. After 10 years, which Escalante described as a “huge learning process,” Escalante made the difficult decision to close the thriving shop in 2021, while relocating to Southern California for family reasons. 

“When I decided to leave, we were at our height,” Escalante said. “I think everyone was shocked.”

Escalante is now applying her years of coffee shop and bakery experience to her own consultancy, focusing on operations, management and staff mentorship. 

“I think there’s just a huge hole in the industry [between] people who understand brick and mortar operations and [people] who also know the work. Many business people can’t speak the same language to a young barista,” Escalante said. “And if you don’t get the buy-in from the employees, you’re going to have high turnover.”

Courtesy photo.

In addition to her consulting work, Escalante was recently named president of Little Lunch, a cafe business with locations in Venice and Santa Monica. “There’s a young, Gen Z vibe,” Escalante said of Little Lunch. “The company is also about the nostalgia of the 90s, and I’m a 90s kid, so that’s fun, too.”

Here’s more from our recent conversation with Escalante…

What about coffee excites you most?

As an operations person, I feel like there is money to be had in this industry, and there’s a lot of money wasted. To me, what excites me is the possibility of having the ear of decision makers and money spenders to be smarter so that you can provide things like health benefits. It takes time. It’s not an overnight change, but there are too many companies losing money. It’s not wasting money, it’s spending money in frivolous places. It’s not having clear operational standards and boundaries. It all stems from leadership. It excites me to have the opportunity to be able to influence and grow new leaders. 

What about coffee troubles you most?

The terrifying lack of great leadership. There are so many people in leadership who are terrible leaders. I still can’t believe the lack of diversity, the lack of women. We need more leaders to understand good leadership. 

What would you be doing if it weren’t for coffee?

I would be a stay-at-home mom. I wish I could be with my kids all the time. I love being a mom. Then another part of me feels like I should run for president, you know, help change the world more. 

Is there someone in the coffee industry who inspires you? Nominate them for a feature story here.