Put a pot of coffee on, it’s Nosh’s Breakfast Week 2024. The dean of science fiction Robert Heinlein once said “one should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast,” and we here at Nosh could not agree more. All week long we are celebrating local roasters, bakers and brunches, and the latest trends for the morning meal. Check back each day this week for new stories on the East Bay’s breakfast scene.
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Sharing stories over a cup of coffee is a ritual humans have been practicing for centuries. Fernando Diaz Mendoza, owner and founder of the West Oakland coffee shop Proyecto Diaz, is taking the concept of sharing to a deeper dimension.
Tucked away in a small offshoot of West Oakland’s Mandela Parkway, Proyecto Diaz is shrouded in white walls and punctuated with natural wood accents, a vibe familiar to many an urban specialty coffee shop goer. But the café in itself communicates a much larger story than third-wave coffee aesthetics, which is why Proyecto Diaz could be described as a sort of museum — one in which folks are invited to observe, learn, and share in the diverse coffee and food cultures of Latin America.
“I think we have a unique ability to allow others to learn, where it becomes like a museum. You go to a museum to appreciate and to educate yourself. And therefore you can also then pass along that information,” Diaz Mendoza said.
Proyecto Diaz CAFE
1416 20th St., Oakland; proyectodiazcoffee.com
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Hailing from a line of multi-generational coffee farmers, Diaz Mendoza treats every cup of coffee as a chance to share an authentic piece of his cultural and family history with folks from diverse communities.
“A lot of our employees, not all of them are Latin American. And so we teach them, hey, this is what this is, this is a traditional ingredient. It helps them feel more confident to be able to explain that to someone else as well,” he said. “Because in the beginning, they’re like, oh, I’m not Latino, so they feel disconnected from what we’re offering. And I’m like, no, let me teach you.”
Diaz Mendoza’s grandfather, uncles and father have all stewarded the family farm in Oaxaca, Mexico. But he didn’t formally enter the coffee scene until his job in immigration law in the Mission district introduced him to the world of specialty blends.
“At the law firm, I started drinking a lot of specialty coffee. And then I started thinking, wait a minute. A lot of these producers are coming from Latin America and a lot of these producers seem to have a similar, if not the same story as my grandfather,” he said. “That’s when I made the connection that I’ve always wanted to reconnect with my family’s history and culture.”
Diaz Mendoza began roasting coffee beans and soon realized he could leverage his background to become a steward for Mexican and Latin American coffee culture.
“A lot of the roasters, they had no cultural connection, that I could tell, with producing countries. And I thought I have a unique opportunity where I have a bridge between culture and, more importantly, family,” he said.
A toast to Oaxaca — and the rest of Latin America
Diaz Mendoza started serving coffee under the Proyecto Diaz name five years ago at the Ferry Building farmer’s market in San Francisco. It was during this time that his wife, Hannah-Love Diaz, came on board to help out. The couple established the brick-and-mortar at the end of 2023, citing West Oakland’s proximity to their suppliers as well as its maker-driven, “diamond in the rough” qualities.
Diaz spearheads all things creative at the café, including the interior decor, which is intentionally minimal and curated like a museum. Subtle nods to Oaxaca hang thoughtfully on the walls, including a rope made from maguey, a type of agave plant native to Mexico and the Southwest U.S.
“The rope might just seem like a rope, but it’s made of the maguey plant, which is a type of agave. It’s called the plant of a thousand uses, just because you can make alcohol out of it, rope out of it, you can use the needles to sew. Those ropes are made of that plant and it’s so symbolic,” Diaz Mendoza said.
The Oaxacan influence is intentionally salient, but the Diazes haven’t pigeonholed Proyecto Diaz to serve solely Mexican goods. In addition to the beans from Diaz Mendoza’s family farm, the couple sources coffee from regions across Latin America, and their food program, which stars a variety of small breakfast items, celebrates flavors from Guatemala to Argentina.
“With all the food, we want to be very specific as to making sure that it’s Latin American-based flavors. Obviously, we have a strong emphasis on Mexico, but that’s why we also want to introduce other things like the pão de queijo, which is Brazilian,” Diaz Mendoza said.
Other breakfast offerings include a Guatemalan pan dulce, pan de elote (a Mexican cornbread) and Sonoran coyotas, which Diaz described as a kind of “Mexican pop-tart.” The sweet, saucer-shaped pastries are sourced from Tutuli Coyotas, one of the only bakeries in the Bay Area that makes them from scratch. Three types of tamales, a classic Mexican breakfast staple, are also on offer — sweet corn, rajas (a tamal filled with Oaxacan cheese and chili) and chicken.
The Diazes offered breakfast burritos for a short stint, but their space couldn’t accommodate a consistent output. However, Argentinian-style empanadas are coming soon. There will be several varieties on offer, some filled with bacon egg and cheese; spinach; a traditional beef-filled empanada and a vegan option with chimichurri.
The Diazes said that as time goes on, local Latin American bakers are steadily trickling in and offering to contribute to their pastry case.
“I think, as people found out about what we were offering and really started liking our café, all of these Latin American bakers and makers just started coming out of the woodwork, which was really cool,” Diaz said.
Proyecto Diaz might be the most thoughtfully-curated coffee shop in this neck of the woods — where every object has a story, and where everyone is invited to the table to learn and share.
“Every little piece here, this is a part of something,” she said.
