Café X Coffee Shop + Community Hub Lands in Logan Heights

Café X Coffee Shop + Community Hub Lands in Logan Heights

Founded by a mother-daughter duo, Café X: By Any Beans Necessary serves gourmet coffee and tea and also operates as a community gathering space inside Logan Heights' 1835 Creative Studios.

Photo credit: Sumayyah Muhammed, Afrovisionz Creative

Café X: By Any Beans Necessary, a family-owned, Black woman-owned cooperated coffee shop, is now open in its new location inside 1835 Creative Studios, a creative collective hub on the border of Sherman Heights and Logan Heights.

Café X was founded by Khea Pollard in 2016 at the conclusion of a year-long community fellowship program hosted by RISE San Diego. Pollard's mother, Cynthia Ajani, joined as a co-owner in 2018 and worked tirelessly with Pollard to find the right space for Café X.

“There's a really beautiful vibe in this space. We found this space about 2 years ago, a short while after we launched our [X Factor] coffee blend. It's been a long road…but I couldn't be more thrilled,”  says Ajani.

“It makes me so happy to see people in this space,” says Pollard. “This is really special because of everything that we've gone through…since starting this pet project with RISE San Diego in 2016. It's grown into an actual, living organization and I am really happy and excited for what we're building in this community.”

Photo credit: Café X / Instagram

In addition to serving high-quality coffee, tea and delicious made-from-scratch pastries, Café X partners with other Black-owned businesses to support generational wealth building through community events and by offering an internship program to develop young leaders.

“I can't wait for this year — to activate this space, to do our events, have our internship program blossom and bloom,” says Pollard. “We've built out an internship that is paid and we've partnered with San Diego nonprofits to give young people not just a place to train in coffee, but in life.”

Cafe X has also partnered with San Diego for Every Child to develop the Black Women's Resilience Project, one of the first guaranteed income pilots in the San Diego region to help address the racial and gender inequalities that impact the lives of Black women.

Open Tuesday-Friday, 9am-3:30pm, Saturday 10am-3:30pm

Café X: By Any Beans Necessary

1835 Imperial Avenue, San Diego, CA 92102

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