La Finca Coffee
Josué Barahona has coffee in his veins—generations of his family worked on coffee farms in El Salvador. Since 2021, Barahona and his wife, Jenny, have been honoring that heritage with this colorful, hand-painted coffee cart outfitted with a La Marzocco Linea Mini espresso machine. Specialty sips include the Spro Mosa (OJ, espresso, and honey over ice) and Te de la Finca (coconut water, cáscara-tea syrup, and lemon). On weekends, find La Finca in Silver Spring’s Long Branch neighborhood, where the Barahonas (far left) will open a cafe next year.
Jane Coffee and Matcha
Gaithersburg couple Daniell and Michelle Ortañez—longtime lovers of coffee and matcha—enjoy spreading the gospel with their micro-cafe on wheels. It began popping up in the spring of 2025, often using beans from local roasters, including A Toda Madre and Neighbors. The pair creates custom drinks for each event, perhaps a cinnamon-laced latte garnished with a mini cinnamon roll or a matcha latte topped with a macadamia-nut-cookie “lid.”
Tz’ikin Cafe
Allan Gonzalez didn’t know much about coffee until he visited Guatemala in 2020. Popping into cafes and farms, he found himself entranced by every step of the bean-to-cup process. He learned the intricacies of shot pulling and brewing, and last year rolled out a custom-built cart called Tz’ikin (“eagle” in the Mayan language). Zipping around DC and Montgomery County, he features beans from his home country of El Salvador. To complement his mobile operation, he opened a cafe in Fort Totten this summer.
Sun & Stars Filipina Coffee Roasters
Kimberly Lizardo’s rainbow lattes are built for Instagram but also deliver a spectrum of flavor—brown butter, almond, and vanilla. The Filipino American from North Bethesda is self-taught. During the pandemic, she sourced beans from the Philippines, learned to roast them at home, and perfected her latte art. Her custom-built espresso machine with gold fixtures pops up at places like Glover Park’s Joia Burger and Falls Church’s Nue. And she’s still a full-time pharmacist.
Pink Wheel Coffee Co.
When Denisa Derglova was in college, she worked at Grounded Coffee in Alexandria, honing her barista skills and developing an appreciation for cafe culture. Her husband, Babar Ali, owns Capital JDM, a Japanese vehicle importer in Temple Hills. Their passions come together with this mobile shop in a pint-size Japanese Kei truck. Using beans sourced from South America and roasted locally, Derglova turns out cafe classics alongside specialty offerings like a tiramisu latte.
Nevin Martell is a food, travel, and foraging writer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, USA Today, Men’s Journal, Fortune, Travel + Leisure, The Daily Beast, BBC, and many other publications. He is author of eight books, including Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery, Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip, and The Founding Farmers Cookbook: 100 Recipes From the Restaurant Owned by American Family Farmers. When he isn’t working, he loves spending time with his son, foraging for wild foods, and traveling.
