THE BUSY CORNER of English and State avenues, where Paloma Orozco opened her third-space coffeehouse last September, has long had a magnetic pull on creatives. The intersection is also home to pop surrealist artist Mab Graves’ Monster Gallery. Former denizens have included leather goods company Howl + Hide as well as curator and art consultant Christopher West of Christopher West Presents. It’s fitting that Orozco, herself an artist and poet with a background in education and advertising, hopes 1656 Club becomes known as much for its community pop-ups as for the espresso and matcha drinks she assembles behind the counter. “We are all creatives in some way,” she says.
Orozo turned the walls of 1656 Club into a gallery for local artists and has hosted events such as Curated Convos with local wellness experts and a collab with Fountain Square Yoga across the street. Customers can sink into one of the chic sofas in the light-filled room and sip a cinnamon-kissed Spanish latte or snack on a tamale or pan dulce, all nods to the owner’s family’s Mexico City origins. “I literally put all my life savings into this,” says Orozco, adding that the hustle is in her blood. “I come from a family of entrepreneurs.” Most memorably, her grandmother—mother of 10 children—ran a homemade ice cream shop beneath her home in Mexico City, not surprisingly a favorite spot for a child to visit. “It all started with her,” Orozco says. “My cousins and I all have little ice cream tattoos.”
1656 English Ave., 317-419-2589
