Avocado toasts, including a smoked salmon and egg version, are on the menu at Carmela Toast & Coffee Bar, which Rainier Abreu launched with friend Rafael Baretta in 2018.
In the age of drive-thru coffee, Carmela Toast & Coffee Bar is looking to offer the exact opposite. For owners Rainier Abreu and Rafael Baretta, coffee and community go hand in hand, and Carmela’s was created to reflect that ideal. Since starting in 2018 in Parkland, Florida, they’ve added to their unit count and began to franchise in 2021.
Creating Carmela’s wasn’t the original plan for Abreu and Baretta. Both studied chemical engineering at Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela, and they were pursuing careers when the tumultuous political situation pushed them to leave the country with their families in 2007.
Years later, they found themselves in Florida and ready to launch a business venture. The first idea, said Abreu, was to start a coffee distribution company, drawing on Baretta’s family ties to Cafe Galavis coffee company in Colombia.
“We wanted to do an online coffee club and create something like a subscription, especially because Raf had some connections with the coffee world,” said Abreu. They turned instead to creating a community coffee bar, with Abreu’s vision for Carmela similar to the fictitious Central Perk from “Friends,” where the characters spend a lot of their time simply hanging out. In his words, “Parklanders wanted a coffee shop and a place to meet.”
Rainier Abreu
Opening in January 2018, Carmela soon solidified its position as a community staple following the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in February of that year. Abreu and Baretta stepped in to support the community through the tragedy, offering Carmela as a place to unite, and in turn, the community supported the business.
What community means for Abreu is all encompassing. Customers aren’t limited in the time they can spend at a Carmela shop. Whether it’s to meet with friends and family, work, or simply relax, customers are encouraged to take their time.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think Carmela’s is about coffee,” said Abreu. “I think Carmela’s is about an experience that happens to sell coffee.”
That doesn’t mean the coffee takes a backseat to the experience. The company sources directly from Costa Rica, and the beans are roasted in-house for the slate of espresso-based beverages, including a recent offering dubbed the “Selfieccino.” At a store in Boca Raton, customers can order a cappuccino with a photo of their choice, instantly printed in front of the customer in edible foam.
Food is likewise a focus versus an afterthought, with a full lineup of avocado toasts, plus flatbreads, sandwiches and salads.
Rafael Baretta
The name “Carmela,” meanwhile, is a nod to the coffee pickers themselves. “We’re often asked if that’s our wife or mom, but it’s not,” said Abreu. “In Central America, the people that picked coffee happens to be women, and we wanted to have this opportunity to honor the gender.”
As they thought about expansion, Abreu said it was time to “take a leap of faith.”
“We wanted to develop a brand, not just open up a corner coffee shop,” he said. “We didn’t know how, nor when, but we wanted to see Carmela’s as a brand.”
By 2020, Carmela had three locations and it’s now up to nine in Florida, including the first franchise units, one of which is owned by Carlos Inojosa. Originally a customer and an entrepreneur himself, Inojosa said he recognized the concept was easy to learn and replicate. He opened his store in the coastal Atlantic city of Delray Beach.
“I was a customer of Carmela’s and had a chance to meet Rainier and Rafael, and that’s when it all started,” said Inojosa, with Abreu serving as an interpreter. “I had a chance to see the traffic, and that’s what got my interest, so I asked what I needed to do to open a Carmela’s.”
The initial investment range is between $284,136 and $511,631, with locations ranging in size from 1,500 to 2,300 square feet. The company’s website calls out that 17 percent of sales come via third-party delivery services or the Carmela’s app.