Aspen Street Coffee’s new owners are keeping old favorites and adding some Puerto Rican coffee and food to the Fruita locale

Tim Harty, The Business Times

At a crossroads that required a decision between moving to Puerto Rico or staying in Fruita, John and Jaime Ortiz chose Fruita.

That’s why they purchased Aspen Street Coffee Co., 136 E. Aspen Ave. in Fruita, in mid-June. They’ll remain in the town where Jaime went to high school and has been working at Mane Attraction Salon, 126 E. Aspen Ave., just a few doors down from the coffee shop that has been her go-to for coffee in the morning.

That means they said no to moving to John’s native Puerto Rico, but they figured out a way to make Aspen Street Coffee feel a little more like home for him:

• The coffee shop will add coffee beans from Puerto Rico to the varieties they already roast and serve from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala.
• And a few Puerto Rican items, sweet and savory, will be added to the food menu.

For a sweet pastry, Jaime will steer you to the quesito, which literally means “little cheese” and at Aspen Street Coffee is a “sweet vanilla cream cheese puff pastry.”

“They’re so good,” Jaime said. “They’re my favorite Puerto Rican pastry.”

For the savory, the Ortizes promised a surprise is coming in early August, but they provided no details other than it will be “a savory Puerto Rican lunch option.”

Keep in mind these are additions to the menu. All of the things that Aspen Street Coffee patrons loved under the previous owners, Sean and Catherine Schafer, remain.

John said he and Jaime will sprinkle in new items little by little, and they won’t rush it.

“We want to bring top-notch stuff, so we’re really taking our time, making sure that is something that people will love and enjoy,” he said.

At the same time, Jaime added, “We don’t want to scare any of our regulars, Aspen Street fans, away. We’re gonna keep all of their favorites on the menu. We’re not looking to like dismantle it and build something brand new.”

Another thing that remains the same is the staff. John said the prior employees stayed, and he’s grateful they did.

“They have been amazing. I have been nothing but impressed every day by how they operate,” he said. “And their work ethic … it’s been a big help for me, because I can’t imagine going in, not knowing half of the stuff they know.”

John is new to working at a coffee shop, but he’s experienced as a business owner, as he and Jaime owned and operated JDog Junk Removal & Hauling in Fort Worth, TX, for six years. The JDog franchise employs military veterans, which was one of the draws to the business for John, who left Puerto Rico after 9/11 to join the U.S. Army and was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After the military, John worked in oil fields, and that ultimately brought him to Colorado, and that’s how he met Jaime one night at Naggy McGee’s Irish Pub in Grand Junction in 2011.

They eventually got married and moved to Fort Worth for the JDog opportunity, but six years in Texas was enough for them.

John quipped, “Nothing will make you want to come back to Fruita more than being in Texas for six years.”

He said he has nothing against Texas, but the heat and humidity there are a lot rougher than what Colorado’s Western Slope sees. Also the business struggled when the COVID pandemic struck.

“With COVID and everything that happened, it was tough to keep it going,” John said. “It kind of kicked our butt.”

Jaime added, “We just didn’t love Texas. I’m a Colorado girl. I love Colorado.”

So, they sold the junk-removal business in 2022 and came back to the Grand Valley. Three years later, while pondering their future, the idea of moving to Puerto Rico was intriguing.

But Fruita prevailed, in part because of climate again. And once the Ortizes committed to staying put, they seized on the opportunity to buy Aspen Street Coffee.

“I used to come to Aspen Street Coffee when I was in high school, from the first owner,” Jaime said. “And I always loved it and the character that it has inside.”

John said he and Jaime love the coffee shops in Fruita, and he has a desire to share his Puerto Rican heritage through coffee and food at Aspen Street Coffee.

“I always wanted to do something that shows people, helps people learn more about Puerto Rico,” he said. “And this will be a great avenue, like, bring in their coffee, bring in some of their pastries, some of their food.”

John knows how Jaime embraced Puerto Rican coffee and food, and he thinks more people who are exposed to it will have a similar experience.

“I feel like people will really love that,” he said. “People will want that, you know?”

The Girl From Fruita Can Cook

Jaime Ortiz became a big fan of the quesito, a Puerto Rican pastry, and because her husband, John Ortiz, loves them, she wanted to be able to make an acceptable quesito for him at home.

She soared past acceptable.

“About 10 years ago, I learned how to make them and surprised him when he got home from work with them. And he ate, like, five in one sitting the first time,” Jaime said.

Her quesitos now grace the pastry case at Aspen Street Coffee Co., which she and John bought in mid-June.

The coffee shop is only a part-time gig for Jaime, whose full-time work is at Mane Attraction Salon in the same block of East Aspen Avenue in Fruita as Aspen Street Coffee. Meanwhile, running the coffee shop is John’s full-time job.

Jaime learned to make other Puerto Rican foods in addition to quesitos, and John smiled wide before sharing the following:

“What’s funny about this is that I’m kinda the one doing the operation – well, the Puerto Rican of this operation – but my wife, the girl from Fruita, is the one coming up with the recipes, which is crazy. But she learned our cuisine, and she has, like, mastered it. So, our comfort food now is Puerto Rican food.”

Jaime described Puerto Rican food as: “It isn’t spicy or anything. It’s just really flavorful, and it has a big Spanish/Portuguese influence, as well as a little bit of an African influence and a little bit of their native Taino Indian influence, which is really neat, like the mashup of those four cultures.

“Their food is just very savory, full of flavor, seasonings. Their pastries are just really good and delicate. So, it’s a fun addition to Fruita.”

Jaime said there’s no place for John to go in Fruita for Puerto Rican food, so she wanted to be able to provide it at home.

“Whenever he feels homesick or his family comes to visit and stuff, I’ve just learned over the last 14 years how to cook some of their food, and it’s great,” she said. “And I feel like it’s important for our kids to experience part of, you know, his culture. They’re immersed in mine every day. But at home, you know, food is a big part of culture. No matter where you’re from or where you live.”

This Is Why They Love Fruita

The Ortizes are thrilled with and grateful for the reception they’ve received from Aspen Street Coffee customers during their first month as owners.

“I mean, already we’re taken aback by how much support we’ve had over the last month from people I went to school with, or people we’ve previously worked with that are coming in and seeing us,” Jaime said.

John described the support – “the amount of congratulations and like actual smiles, people shaking your hand, being happy for you and excited for you” – as “mind blowing.”

Jaime responded to her husband’s comment with: “That’s why we love Fruita.”