Amelia and her staff are super friendly and they serve great food

Hidden Fortress Coffee, known by many as the coffee vendor at Santa Cruz Community Farmers Markets since 2013, has just opened their first downtown Santa Cruz location. The new spot is inside the Cruzio Works space, 877 Cedar Street, at Church Street.

Hidden Fortress Cafe at Cruzio
Grand Opening Thursday July 25
8:30am-6:30pm

This little grab and go coffee bar features the organic coffee that owner Amelia Loftus has been roasting since 2012 in Watsonville. It additionally offers a full espresso bar with handcrafted mixers plus a selection of grab & go pastries and breakfast burritos made in their Watsonville kitchen. Also available made to order are a toast bar featuring locally baked sourdough bread (including a gluten free option) and a selection of breakfast sandwiches.

The cafe fits perfectly with Cruzio’s coworking space, Cruzioworks. Working in a lovely, light-filled environment and getting up for a delicious coffee and a sandwich or a pastry, perhaps chatting with another coworker — wonderful.

For the first few weeks operations are in a soft opening phase as new staff are trained and the cafe undergoes a face lift… including a beautiful mural being painted by Helena Rae (@raehaven). A grand opening party is being organized for Thursday July 25. Throughout the day an array of small bites and fresh brewed coffee will be offered to all guests. Hours will be extended until 6:30pm, and some extra treats will be rolled out after 3pm including toast bar sliders and espresso drink shooters.

Hidden Fortress Coffee has been searching for a better location for a few years, since it became obvious that customers lost throughout the Covid Pandemic were not coming back to their Watsonville location. Relocating the entire business was even considered. The good news is the new location requires a support kitchen—which the Watsonville location has—so if the new spot is successful it will keep the Watsonville spot open too. 

Amelia and her husband Patrick started Hidden Fortress Coffee at their small farm in north Monterey county in 2013. Amelia has been roasting coffee since 2001, starting as a home roaster when the home brew supply business she managed added a home coffee roasting section. A lifetime coffee enthusiast, Amelia has been passionate about coffee and has been hooked on roasting since her very first batch.

As a women owned small business Amelia pays extra attention to the circumstances of women in the coffee industry. For the specialty coffee industry, from farmer to roaster the ownership of coffee businesses is about 75% male, while the workforce is over 60% female. Hidden Fortress devotes at least 30% of the coffee buying budget for coffee grown by women owned farms. Coffee income can empower women to invest in their communities and create better opportunities for their families. 

Cheers!