Coffee, culture, community: New Quincy café aims to serve minority groups

QUINCY − It's a pile of demolished dry wall, loose bricks, screws and nails right now, but a trio of socially-minded friends say the vacant space at 186 West Squantum St. will soon be home to a café, library and cultural space with am emphasis on the Asian American community.

"Our goal with this space is to help people fill the gaps they may have in their culture and give them access to history and knowledge," Liam Hobbs said. "We want to make that knowledge more accessible."

Hobbs, 27; Emily Goroza, 25; and Gaurab "Rob" Pant, 25, are the founding members of Panethnic Pourovers, a coffee shop meets library meets gathering space planned near the North Quincy T stop. The trio is in the process of applying for official 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and have so far raised almost half of a $10,000 goal on the fundraising website Kickstarter.

The longtime friends "spend a lot of time together talking about social justice and ways to help the community," Goroza said. "We decided it's time to do something. I wanted to find a way to use my privilege to help others."

Goroza, a Milton resident whose parents immigrated from the Philippines, said she was largely inspired by her own experience as a first generation American. Her parents never taught her much of her native language in hopes she'd assimilate well, but that lack of knowledge left her feeling ostracized by others in her cultural community. With her traditionally Philippine features and lunch box full of cultural foods, she said she also didn't feel like she belonged among her American friends.

"Being a first generation immigrant is a really unique experience. I don't really feel like I belong in the Philippines or in America," she said, adding that she learned next to nothing about her culture in school. "It's a lot of weird experiences and conflict within the Asian American community."

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Pant, a software engineer, moved to the United States from Nepal when he was 8, and Hobbs is a student of East Asian studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Goroza said she's long felt like Hobbs, her boyfriend, knows more about her culture than she does.

"We picked an Asian American focus because of our own background, the people who have volunteered to help and the resources we have access too, but we want this to be a welcoming space to learn about Black culture, Hispanic culture, anything," Goroza, who also works in tech, said.

A contractor was flitting around the space on a recent weekday, and the group has started building their menu, thrifting for furniture and building a collection of cultural reads. They envision rows of bookshelves available for anyone to borrow and cozy seating scattered throughout the space. A small kitchen and espresso machine in the back will serve up Asian drinks and foods. The space used to hold a barbershop.

"We're going for a homey feel," Hobbs said.

Menu items will include Vietnamese-style coffee sourced from Càphê Roasters in Philadelphia; lattes with flavors like earl gray, ube and matcha; Korean dalgona whipped coffee; and loose leaf teas. For food, they plan to sell siopao, Filipino steamed dumplings; pandesal sweet rolls; Filipino-style muffins called puto; and Japanese castella cakes, which Hobbs likened to a Swiss roll.

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The café will have a "pay it forward" account, Goroza said, where customers can pay for extra items to be given to those who can't afford them later. They've vowed not to price any items over $10. The trio is also envisioning a small food pantry cabinet for customers to stock with nonperishable items available for anyone who needs them.

In addition to the cultural eats and reads, Hobbs, of Hingham, said they hope to serve as a gathering space for those organizing social justice movements and will host workshops, lectures and discussions.

"When you're here, you'll be treated like a human being and not just someone buying a product," Pant said. "We care and we want you to feel at home."

Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Quincy coffee shop Panethnic Pourovers coming to West Squantum Street