As a teen, Jefri Lindo trekked across L.A. on buses looking for work. He was brewing a future as the co-owner of Ülëw Coffee and Juice.
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In a Boyle Heights mini mall, just a few blocks from the iconic Sears building, Ülëw Coffee and Juice offers drinks and food in a space that has been carefully put together to feel like a small bit of Guatemala.
Its walls and tables are adorned with Indigenous art and huipil textiles and fabrics and the cafe serves as a cultural hub, run by community leaders who are eager to make an impact on the Chapin community in Los Angeles.
“We’re here to create a space for Guate food, people, music and art,” said co-owner Jefri Lindo. “We never imagined that we would have this. We came here with nothing. We knew no one, but this community has embraced us with open arms.”
Before he became co-owner of Ülëw, Lindo spent years traversing the city on buses, working in restaurants in hopes of surviving and thriving in a new country.
He was 14 years old and only spoke K’iche’ and Spanish when he came to L.A. from Chichicastenango, Guatemala. He enrolled at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, eager to study but also needing to work to sustain himself.
As a freshman, he hopped on a bus at Whittier Boulevard and Soto Street for a two-hour ride to Westwood, where he applied for work and found a dishwasher position at a Persian restaurant, he said.
The days were long and he got very little sleep, studying and commuting to work on the Westside. But he felt bolstered by educators who saw his potential.
“My teachers played a huge role in shaping me and pushing me to be great,” Lindo said. “They knew I worked late, others extended my deadlines for assignments.”
Eventually, he was hired at another eatery where he worked his way up from dishwasher to prep cook, then a line cook. In 2019, Lindo found work at Bestia, the trendy downtown restaurant. He knew little about it until he walked through the doors.
“The name Bestia stood out to me on Google Maps and so I went to see what it was about,” he said.
He flourished there, working his way up to house expeditor, acting as the key liaison between the kitchen and dining room. (Think the character Cousin in the FX series “The Bear.”)
Later he also worked at its sister restaurant Bavel and credits the restaurants for giving him a chance to gain skills and success.
“The way they run hospitality and their attention to detail, it’s a whole new world,” he said.
At Saffy’s, a Middle Eastern Restaurant on the corner of Fountain Avenue and North Catalina Street, Lindo continued to work as a front of the house expeditor. He also met Michaela Zholovnik, a former accountant who became a line cook and would later become his romantic and business partner.
In the summer of 2023, Lindo and Zholovnik, along with Lindo’s mother, Rosa Gonzalez, and uncle Elvis Gonzalez, got together and started looking for new business opportunities. They each shared a strong background working in coffee shops and kitchens and wanted to provide the community with healthy alternatives.
“Fast food was everywhere,” Rosa Gonzalez said. “We thought about what we could offer.”
Like her son, Rosa Gonzalez had worked for years in restaurants — including at Urth Caffé in the Arts District as a prep cook. Elvis Gonzalez also worked at Urth Caffé in Melrose as a dishwasher before being promoted to barista — a position that reminded him of earlier years of his life in Guatemala.
“I grew up being fond of coffee,” he said. “I understood how to make it with love.”
After they settled on the idea of selling natural fruit and vegetable juices, they set up shop with a secondhand generator, a Breville juicer, a canopy, table and their daily produce near the Sears building on the busy intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Soto Street.
They called the pop-up Nature’s Nectar. It had a “no-frills” approach but came from a deep desire to nourish the community.
“We chose the intersection because of its heavy traffic,” Lindo said. “We wanted to help people heading to work early or graveyard shift workers heading home.”
Two customers were particularly special: Elisa Hoyos and Leo Abularach of Picaresca Barra de Cafe in Boyle Heights, which was on the same block as the juice stand. Lindo remembers meeting the couple and trying their delicious coffee with his family after long days.
“Buying coffee from Picaresca always felt like the last win of the day, our reward for our hard work,” Lindo said. Similarly, Abularach and Hoyos visited the stand to pick up juices, a gesture of community support.
One slow afternoon in October 2023, as Rosa Gonzalez helmed the juicing stand alone, Abularach shared Picaresca’s plans to relocate by year’s end and offered their location at a mini-mall on Soto Street.
“Each day I’d ask from the heart that the universe give us a place,” she said. She believed Abularach’s proposition was part of that manifestation and a blessing and shared the news with her son.
Picaresca moved to a new Boyle Heights location at the end of 2023 and Nature’s Nectar halted street operations and opened their new coffee and juice bar in January 2024.
“The special thing is that we got what we wished for,” Rosa Gonzalez said. “I am happy because I have Jefri alongside me, he is the one who has been at the forefront of making this happen, giving us ideas to grow more, representing our culture and Guatemala.”
“I want people who speak K’iche’ to feel at home,” said Lindo, adding that the business honors Indigenous values instilled by his mother.
“She’s been a huge influence in the way we’ve maintained connection to our roots,” said Lindo.
In October, they expanded by adding dining tables and bar seating adorned with colorful upholstery and a sacred altar dedicated to Mother Earth in gratitude for their success.
They also work closely with ceramist Bianca Elena Ramirez, who custom-makes their coffee mugs, intentionally painting them with symbols that represent sacred elements.
As for the coffee menu, Gonzalez is especially proud of the Ülëw latte made with homemade ginger root syrup, cinnamon and oat milk. The first sip invokes warmth and his hope is for customers to be taken back to a specific time of ease and comfort, he said.
“Here we serve coffee with a touch of memories that allow us to feel at home,” Gonzalez said.
On Chapin Sundays, an event curated to toast the Guatemalan community, Lindo’s tía, Debora Xon, provides her culinary expertise. Meats are fired over an Argentinian-style grill and served with a Guateño feast of shucos, chuchitos, tamales and, of course, coffee.
Lindo tears up when asked about the shop’s success, but he also smiles.
“This is great pride and privilege,” he said. “This is what we came to do, make our own rules and represent Guatemala.”
Tejeda is a freelance writer based in East Los Angeles who frequently writes about businesses owned by people of color.
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