Rico’s celebrates a decade of java in Mazatlan

Mazatlán 10 years ago,was a very different town that the one we know today. When Marianne Biasotti arrived, as a new bride, there was no Plaza Machado or sense of an “Old Town,” not many other gringos (especially full-time) and – perhaps worst of all – no good coffee.

“It was like this,” Marianne recalled. “I love my husband and I love this city. But I can’t continue living here without two things: great coffee and a place to go and hang out by yourself. There wasn’t a vibrant place where you might run into people that might also be new here or visiting.”

Marianne also recalls that there were no Starbucks at that time, either, and the coffee shop-as-lounge idea had not yet “happened.”

“I wanted a place like this, to hang out, with magazines, newspapers - it’s a meeting place,” she said. “Coffee is the common denominator. This is a place to be. Who goes to a restaurant or bar by themselves to read a book?”

Marianne was betting on the locals being part of the coffee revolution that she’d already seen sweep the US in the ‘80s. She also knew from her research that although Mexico produces some of the best coffee in the world, as is typical of a producing country, the general populace doesn’t drink it.

“Lots of people didn’t think anyone would drink coffee, especially in the summer,” she recalled. “Our landlords in our first two locations laughed at us - they thought we wouldn’t last.”

But on opening day, Valentine’s Day 2000, they had lines out the door, their “best day ever,” said Marianne.

“Truly there was not a coffee culture in Mazatlan,” said Marianne. “People come and thank us.”

Marianne ran the first two locations, in the Gold Zone and inside the El Cid hotel, for five years, and then recruited hubbie Rogelio Fontes to help. That’s when they started roasting their own beans, using only organic Fair Trade Mexican beans. Two years ago they added a full kitchen and expanded their menu, and last year opened the Marina location.

Rico’s staff are trained to make coffee the “Italian way” – milk is hand-steamed, milk, espresso is pressed by hand - to assure the quality of the coffees they serve. She also has sent staff to coffee conferences and encourages the baristas to enter competitions, like the annual World Barista Championship (“like the Olympics of coffee preparation”). Rico’s has had four people compete and they’ve always placed in the top 10. They’re the only café in Sinaloa that participates.

Future plans include coffee tours to organic farms and sourcing new, specialty coffees – like “naturals” from Nayarit, a new process where the fruit is dried on the bean before washing, in the sun, like raisins.

“We have to save this population from bad coffee,” she laughed. “It’s like I’m on a mission!”