Nashville, TN
We're not
a coffee
company.
We're an events company that happens to make really good coffee. The coffee is just how we get everyone in the same room.
How it started
Too many
margaritas
at El Fuego.
How it started
Too many
margaritas
at El Fuego.
Juan had been talking about this for a while. He had a list. He'd done the math. Phil had heard the pitch. It was a good pitch.
None of that is what actually locked it in.
What locked it in was sitting at El Fuego, somewhere deep into the margarita situation, when we had the purchase screen open and handed the phone to a friend. We watched them click buy on our first espresso machine. We were right there. We let it happen.
You can walk back a conversation. You can't walk back a purchase.
That was it. We were in.
Day one
The bomb, the bad shots, and the name we almost ruined ourselves with.
Phil built a contraption that used an air compressor as a water pump. It looked exactly like a bomb. It sort of functioned. We set it up on a collapsing plastic folding table in front of close friends — people who love us enough to drink bad espresso and say it's fine.
The shots were bad. The table was dying. The whole thing was completely janky, and we knew it, and we kept going anyway.
We also needed a new name.
Day one, the folding table in question.
Night one with the machines, notes required.
The first outdoor shots, somebody's deck.
the bomb, as designed.
We'd been running as Coffee 88. Built the whole initial brand around it. Started showing it to people.
First friend flagged it. Then another. Then another.
88. H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. HH. Heil Hitler.
We all felt appropriately stupid.
Here's the thing though — losing that name forced a real conversation. Not “okay what else sounds good?” but actually: who are we? What's this actually from?
Juan is Mexican. Phil grew up in Southern California, deep in that same cultural mix — surf, skate, Spanish in the house, the whole thing. We'd been right there the whole time and somehow named ourselves after a Nazi symbol before we named ourselves after ourselves.
El Gato Negro.
The black cat.
Taboo.
Counter-culture.
Ours.
The logo
I drew this cat in 2018 and forgot about it for years.
Back in 2018, I was doing an apparel line with a company out in Huntington Beach. Drew a cat for it. Project got scrapped. File went into a folder, folder went somewhere deep in a drive, and I moved on.
When we landed on El Gato Negro, I started sketching and mood boarding — trying to figure out what this thing looked like. And then I started remembering this cat I'd drawn. Couldn't shake the feeling it was already there.
Found the file. Pulled it open. Flattened it, roughed the edges, let it breathe.
It fit like it had been waiting eight years for the right name.
Year one
The highlight reel is mostly chaos.
The bomb rig. The bad name. Almost calling our principled, community-first Nashville coffee cart Heil Hitler 88 before we caught ourselves.
And then R.A.D. 100. We pulled off at a turnout for a quick pee break. Mid-stream. Dogs appeared. We had to pinch it and run — back to the car, back on the road, on to the next spot.
There hasn't been an “oh shit, this was a mistake” moment yet. There's been plenty of everything else.
R.A.D. 100, load-in.
R.A.D. 100, rug included.
Brass Horn, cupping homework.
Ernie's, debrief.
The people
Juan and Phil. That's the whole team.
Relationships & Growth
Juan Martinez
Co-founder
I handle the relationships. Clients, negotiations, social media, the shape of where this thing goes. Before EGN I ran a nonprofit and had a vintage furniture business — different rooms, same instinct. You're always connecting people around something. You're always trying to understand what a person actually needs versus what they say they want.
My coffee order: simple, always. Anything more than a little honey and you've turned coffee into dessert. I don't need dessert for breakfast.
How I'd describe myself: loving and sassy.
How Phil describes me: communal and dedicated.
Design, Tech & Build
Phil Bartko
Co-founder
I handle the back end. Accounting, web development, cart builds, design. If I'm not at the cart, I'm behind the scenes doing something that keeps it running.
I've been doing branding and design since high school. My career got weird in all the best ways — archaeologist, bicycle mechanic, hospice worker, nonprofits. I'm sure all of it shows up somewhere in this brand.
What drew me to coffee: I think it might be Burroughs — the idea that the original coffeehouses were one of the only spaces where the bourgeoisie and the commoners sat at the same table. Coffee didn't care where you came from. It still doesn't.
How I'd describe myself: curious and capable.
How Juan describes me: particular and caring.