Serving the Latino community

Ah, the romance of owning your own coffeehouse: the gently steaming cups of fragrant cappuccino, the intellectual chitchat with your regulars, the freedom of being your own boss.

The reality?

Try getting up at 5 a.m. to drive an hour round trip -- without the benefit of caffeine -- to pick up pastries for your shop. Staying on your feet as long as 17 hours a day. Training green employees to deliver consistent quality. Scrubbing floors. Replacing employees. Battling Starbucks.

Repeat, seven days a week.

That's life for Ulysses Romero, owner of Tierra Mia Coffee Co. in South Gate.

The Stanford MBA graduate and former business consultant is pouring his energy and the knowledge picked up working for coffee retailers large and small into a concept he hopes can grow into multiple profitable locations.

"It's one thing to sit in a coffeehouse and drink coffee; it's another thing to run it as a business," said Romero, who opened his doors in March.

The 30-year-old coffee connoisseur doesn't plan to merely compete with Starbucks Corp. His goal is to surpass Starbucks in quality and entice Latinos and others with Latin-inspired coffee drinks, as well as beverages familiar to most coffee-chain regulars.

Tierra Mia's direct-trade beans are imported from Latin American farms by Intelligentsia Tea & Coffee Co. of Chicago, which insists growers get at least 25% above fair trade, the internationally established minimum price per pound. The beans are roasted in small batches in Los Angeles by the specialty supplier, which also has a coffee shop in Silver Lake.

The shop's baristas were trained by Kyle Glanville, who won the 2008 U.S. Barista Championship and heads research and development at Intelligentsia's Los Angeles roasting facility.

At Tierra Mia, any single espresso that takes more or less than 23 seconds to pull is tossed. Each coffee is brewed to order. Milk isn't pre-steamed in large jugs. Such attention to detail is key to exceptional taste, Romero said.

His offerings recently caught the attention of Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic at the LA Weekly, who called the shop's espressos "world class" in his short review and raved about the Cubano con leche, an espresso pulled into turbinado sugar and combined with steamed half-and-half.

Sales of espresso and other drinks have increased 5% a week since the shop opened, Romero said. With about 145 transactions a day, the owner says, he probably is breaking even. His goal to reach $400,000 in sales in the first year is within sight, he said.