Yulia Santa began drinking coffee at nine years old. She would drink it before bed every night, like warm milk. It was comforting, not unlike the homey set up in Viza Cafe, which she co-owns with her husband, Juan Villa Mendina.
The cafe seating area, or “living room,” as Santa calls it, is comprised of couches and tables, with polaroid photos of smiling customers and a framed map of Jamaica Plain on one wall.
Viza Cafe opened on South Street in Jamaica Plain on Jan. 12. Its logo is a walking hummingbird man, meant to depict people on the go. The name is a cross between the co-owners’ surnames “Villa” and “Santa,” and alludes to “visa,” which also fits the couple, who are avid travelers.
“We actually first picked our logo before our name,” Santa said. “The hummingbird man, walking, in Spanish it will be ‘el caminante,’ which it means ‘the walker.’”
Prior to opening, the owners completed some renovations on the space. Little Cocoa Bean Co. Tot Cafe, a cafe geared toward young parents and toddlers, previously occupied 114 South St. Tot Cafe has since moved to the Boston Seaport.
Santa and Medina deliberately left the windows uncovered during renovations, allowing passersby to witness the progress. The surrounding businesses welcomed Viza with open arms, even contributing flowers to decorate the space.
“This is like our baby,” Santa said jokingly. “That’s what my husband and I call it. All the decorations, every single detail, we picked it, we did it.”
Alongside a limited food and pastry menu, the cafe serves specialty coffee sourced from Colombia, via Andina’s Cafe in Framingham.
“The one thing that we really wanted to make sure was that it was Colombian coffee, and we needed to make sure … that the quality was good,” said Santa. Santa and Medina were both born in Colombia, before immigrating to Massachusetts. Santa arrived as a child; Medina, in adulthood. “You know, you never forget where you’re from,” Santa continued.
Sitting in the Viza “living room” and snapping pictures of her coffee was Jocelyn De Paz, a South Boston resident. She was sold on the coffee after just one sip. De Paz and her roommate, Anna Grace, travel around Boston visiting coffee shops and discovering neighborhoods.
“[Coffee] was a pitstop that became the inspiration,” Grace said. What began as side quests while exploring new neighborhoods became the destination for their weekend outings.
For De Paz, supporting Spanish-speaking businesses feels extra important amid the ICE immigration raids targeting throughout the country. Growing up in a Guatemalan family, she especially loves meeting Hispanic people. When she hears Bostonian baristas speak Spanish, “I feel like [they’re] family.”
Viza Cafe became one of De Paz and Grace’s top five favorite coffee shops in Boston before the end of their first visit.
According to a 2024 survey completed by Clever, Boston boasts 18.2 coffee shops per 100,000 residents, well above the national average of 12.6 per 100,000 residents. That means Boston residents have access to 44% more coffee shops than the national average.
Portland, Oregon has the most coffee shops per capita, at 27.8 per 100,000 residents.
Viza Cafe is just 0.3 miles from the closest Dunkin Donuts further north on Centre Street, with several independently owned bakeries and cafes sitting between the two, including Fiore’s Bakery and Monumental Market.
Santa used to spend many hours studying at a coffee shop when she was in graduate school, working on a physician’s assistant degree at Northeastern University. She now works as a physician’s assistant fulltime and spends her weekends at the cafe. Medina, Santa’s husband, takes the weekday shifts.
“This is like a baby, so I feel like it’s the same thing when a new parent has a newborn,” Santa said. “You kind of know you’re gonna have to sacrifice time, you’re gonna have to sacrifice certain financial liberties that you could’ve had before. But I think you’re just looking for the end goal, and knowing that, like, the journey is the beauty of it.”
Opening Viza was not without difficulty. Santa and Medina found the city’s licensing process to be unnecessarily confusing. So much so, that they didn’t tell their family about their plan to open a cafe until just one week before the soft opening.
“I think we were just in fear of things not working out. We were waiting for the city to give us permits, because as you know, anything with food, we need to have health permits.”
The City of Boston has a section on their website devoted to small businesses. The website lists the licenses required to open a business, but, according to Santa, the simplicity of the site is misleading. Santa and Medina found it difficult to navigate and were met with conflicting instructions by employees.
“Nothing stacks up against one thing or another,” she said, of the process. “When you go to the city, one department tells you one thing, the other department tells you another thing. So, you kind of go in circles until you kind of figure it out.”
Fortunately, they managed in time for a January opening. The cafe is open seven days a week and rotates specials.
Each specialty coffee drink is given a name. The first few weeks were Ofelia’s mocha, Caroline’s latte and Antonio’s latte. If you show up on a day that features your name, you’ll receive the special latte at a discounted rate.
“Coffee is the warm drink that everyone drinks in the world,” Santa declared. “We just want to show the world what Colombian coffee has in JP.”
