SOMA Coffee House Brings Fresh Brews and Community Vibes to Placitas

By Jesse Jones

The aroma of freshly brewed coffee will soon fill the air in Placitas with the opening of SOMA Coffee House. The locally owned café aims to provide residents with a welcoming space to unwind, enjoy freshly roasted coffee and savor homemade pastries.

SOMA Coffee House is located in the Homestead Village shopping center, a few doors down from the Merc grocery store, in the space formerly occupied by a pharmacy. Owners Nicholas and Kenna Aquilino saw a gap in the Placitas coffee scene and wanted to create a comfortable, early-morning gathering spot.

“I found the number one complaint is that it’s not easy for them to cross the highway when they’re headed to Albuquerque,” Nicholas Aquilino said. “We want to offer a really quick and accessible stop-and-go, they can walk in the door, grab it and head right out and go to work.”

To meet that need, the shop will be open from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 7 or 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.

The café will feature locally roasted coffee, homemade pastries and a community vibe, complete with local art and a multipurpose room for gatherings. 

According to the Aquilinos, they operated a cannabis edibles business in Placitas for about four years under the SOMA brand. 

The name “SOMA” comes from that business, where one of their marketing phrases was, “Put some toffee in your coffee,” Nicholas said. They often held pop-ups serving coffee alongside their toffee, creating a natural association between the brand and coffee. 

When they decided to open a coffee shop, they felt the name “SOMA” was a perfect fit, carrying over that connection while expanding their passion for craft food and community connection.

The Aquilinos said they want the coffee house to be a comfortable, cozy, and inviting space where customers feel welcome to relax and linger. They don’t want people to feel rushed, as they might in a typical restaurant.

“This is a really comfy and cozy environment that’s inviting,” Kenna Aquilino said. “We want people to sit, hang out, and get lost in their morning.”

According to Kenna, they drew inspiration from high-end coffee shops in Albuquerque and aim to bring that level of quality to Placitas.

“We see that it’s lacking good coffee and good fast pastries that are high quality here,” she said. “We are trying to bring the inspiration of some of the better, higher-end coffee shops in town

up here.”

Nicholas said they are committed to baking everything fresh in-house to ensure quality.

“As a contrast, at Starbucks, they serve all the pastries (pre-packaged) and just reheat and send them out, we will be baking everything fresh in-house,” he said. “We’re also going to rotate different items out depending on the community.”

According to the Aquilinos, the shop will initially offer croissants, Danishes, and macaroons made in-house, along with breakfast burritos from a local vendor. They also plan to add pies and cakes to the menu.

Nicholas said they are collaborating with the Merc grocery store to offer chicken salad sandwiches.

“We’re going to be selling a chicken salad from their deli, and they’re going to wholesale that to us so we can make sandwiches with it,” he said. “We’re excited to be able to shout them out — we’re going to have their name on the packaging to let everybody know it’s coming from the Merc.”

He said they want to create that community vibe where everybody knows that we’re open to working with everyone and just being a part of the community. 

Additionally, SOMA will offer ready-to-go meals from Pack Your Maxx, an Albuquerque-based company that specializes in locally made, healthy New Mexican meals.

Kenna said one of the local roasters the coffee house is partnering with is excited to offer classes on high-end coffees, as well as guide tastings and fine-tuning sessions for customers.

Adding to the comfortable vibe of the café, SOMA is partnering with the Wild Hearts Gallery to showcase local artists on the walls.

Kenna said they are eager to include more local artists in the future but wanted to focus on perfecting their coffee and service in the first phase. 

“We’ve had plenty of interest from other artists, and as time goes on, we will expand to make our walls open to the whole community,” she said.

Nicholas said the café plans to open a separate room in phase two to serve as a community meeting space, reacting to the area’s need for venues like this. Currently, the library and the church have limited space and are often booked up. The new 18-by-20-foot room will be available for rent, catering, and other accommodations to meet community needs. 

“I think people are really going to enjoy using that space,” he added.