Café Corazón

Café Corazón is Kansas City’s first Latin American and Indigenous coffeehouse and roastery — a family business founded in 2019 by Miel Castagna-Herrera, Curtis Herrera, and their daughter Dulcinea Herrera. Built around Latinx and Indigenous espresso drinks, traditional foods (conchas, empanadas, tamales), and ceremonial yerba mate, it grew from a Westport storefront into a three-location operation. The 110 Southwest Blvd location anchors the Crossroads/Westside edge. In May 2026 the family won the Greater KC Chamber’s Mr. K Award (Small Business of the Year).

Description

Café Corazón bills itself as Kansas City’s first Latin American and Indigenous coffeehouse, where “culture, community, and craft come together.”¹ The program centers on classic and specialty Latinx and Indigenous espresso drinks alongside ceremonial yerba mate served in its traditional form — a niche the founders say was entirely absent from KC’s coffee scene when they started.²³ Press has repeatedly described it as the only café serving authentic yerba mate for a vast stretch of the country’s interior (“the only yerba mate cafe between the two coasts”).⁴

The food and drink draw directly from the owners’ heritage: Miel Castagna-Herrera’s Argentine roots (her father immigrated from Buenos Aires and taught her to drink mate) and Curtis Herrera’s Mexican and Mescalero Apache ancestry.³⁴ The menu spans espresso and coffee drinks, yerba mate, smoothies, chocolate, blue corn and other native ingredients, toasts, Argentine sweets (dulce de leche, alfajores), choripán, empanadas, tamales, conchas and other pastries.⁵⁴ The business has since become a roaster as well, sourcing ethically from Latin American farms and running wholesale, canned-beverage, and distribution operations from its own roasting facility.⁶

The 110 Southwest Blvd location sits in the Crossroads Arts District next door to ArtsKC, in a roughly 3,000-square-foot space (larger than the original Westport shop) designed to showcase Latinx and Indigenous artists and to participate in the Crossroads’ First Fridays.⁵ See crossroads-arts-district.

Ownership and history

Period	Operator / milestone
2017	Miel Castagna-Herrera begins planning a Latin coffee + yerba mate café, seeing no KC space serving mate or South American coffee culture2
September 2019	Café Corazón opens its first location at 1721 Westport Rd27
2022	Second location opens at 110 Southwest Blvd in the Crossroads Arts District3
~2023–2025	Launches roasting/distribution facility, wholesale coffee, canned beverages, and specialty products from Latin American farms6
June 2025	Third location opens in Brookside at 5911 Main St (grand opening June 7, 2025)8
May 27, 2026	Family wins the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Mr. K Award — Small Business of the Year6
Present	Open and operating across three locations under founding family ownership1

Café Corazón is a true family business — founded and run by Miel Castagna-Herrera, her husband Curtis Herrera, and their daughter Dulcinea Herrera.¹³ The original Westport café displayed furnishings made by Curtis, artwork by Dulcinea, and a mural by artists Isaac Tapia and Rodrigo Alvarez.⁵ The owners pride themselves on training baristas to deliver a traditional Latinx coffee experience and on employing multilingual staff (English, Spanish, Portuguese, and American Sign Language).⁴⁶ The company invests in the community through nonprofit partnerships, free events, artist collaborations, and mentorship for underrepresented entrepreneurs.⁶ No corporate parent or franchise relationship is indicated; the business is independent and family-owned.¹⁶

AUDIT NOTE: This is the Kansas City business (the Castagna-Herrera / Herrera family). It is not related to the similarly named “Café Corazón” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — a separate, unaffiliated business.

Menu

Last verified: 2026-06-17 · Source: Café Corazón official site + KC press (MIKCexplore) + Yelp itemized menu · URL(s): https://www.cafecorazonkc.com/ · https://mikcexplore.com/home/2025/9/25/drinking-coffee-in-kc-cafe-corazon · https://www.yelp.com/menu/caf%C3%A9-coraz%C3%B3n-kansas-city-4 · Confidence: Medium-High (drink list itemized with prices on Yelp and corroborated by official site/press; food and sweets sections confirmed by category but not fully itemized against a live primary source)

Espresso & coffee drinks (incl. signature Latin/Indigenous drinks)

• Café de Olla — the house signature: Latin-blend café simmered with warm spices and piloncillo (raw cane sugar), the traditional Mexican clay-pot brew — $6.99 (16 oz)⁹
• Atole de Canela — Indigenous-forward: heirloom single-origin organic corn pinole with organic maple syrup, spices and milk — $6.50⁹
• Churro Atole Latte — organic blue-corn pinole, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, clove and vanilla pulled over espresso with milk — $7.49⁹
• Horchata Latte — house-made cinnamon-rice horchata as a latte base; also offered iced — $7.49⁹
• Dulce de Leche Latte — bright, creamy caramel (Argentine dulce de leche); also offered iced — $7.49⁹
• Mocha Azteca — spiced Mexican-style mocha — $7.99⁹
• Spicy Mayan Mocha — chile-spiced chocolate mocha — $7.99⁹
• Mocha Sevilla — $7.99⁹
• Café Bombón — espresso layered with sweetened condensed milk — $6.49⁹
• Café Cubano — Cuban-style sweet espresso — $4.99⁹
• Café con Leche — 6 oz, hot only — $5.99⁹
• Cortado · Cappuccino · Macchiato · Latte — espresso classics — Cappuccino $4.99, Latte $5.99, Macchiato $4.49 (cortado price)⁹
• Also: cold brew, additional latte/mocha flavor builds (churro, Peruvian cacao, panela spice), and specialty latte flights (e.g. horchata / dulce de leche / churro atole)⁹

Yerba mate & other drinks

• Yerba mate — imported from Argentina and served the traditional way; press describes Café Corazón as the only café serving authentic ceremonial yerba mate across much of the U.S. interior. Full yerba-mate-and-tea menu offered (individual items/prices against live menu)⁹
• Chai · matcha · mocha tea lattes · hot chocolate · house-made horchata · Latin sodas ($7.49)⁹
• Espresso martini (alcoholic) — offered per official site⁹

Food / other

• Empanadas and tamales — core savory items, called out on the official site and across KC press⁹
• Conchas, alfajores, dulce de leche sweets and assorted Latin pastries/cookies (Dulces); choripán, toasts and burritos have also been reported⁹
• Merienda platters (Brookside) — pastries, empanadas, wine, coffee and juice on a shared platter⁹
• Item-level food/sweets pricing — Yelp lists Comida, Dulces and Yerba Maté & Tea as sections but did not itemize them on this pass⁹

Links

• Website: https://www.cafecorazonkc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafecorazonkc/
• Phone: (816) 301-7480 — sourced from the seed/aggregator listings; not re-confirmed against the official site on this pass

See also

• crossroads-arts-district
• Registry

Sources

• Status verified active 2026-06-23 via Yelp — Café Corazón (110 SW Blvd), updated June 2026 and Café Corazón official site (accessed 2026-06-23). Address 110 Southwest Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108 cross-checked and confirmed.

Footnotes

1. Café Corazón — official site, “Our Story.” https://www.cafecorazonkc.com/ourstory and homepage https://www.cafecorazonkc.com/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Kansas City Magazine, “With Café Corazón, Miel Castagna-Herrera brings Latin coffee culture to Kansas City.” https://kansascitymag.com/with-cafe-corazon-miel-castagna-herrera-brings-latin-coffee-culture-to-kansas-city/ ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Flatland KC, “Café Corazón Opening Second Location in Crossroads.” https://flatlandkc.org/eats-drinks/cafe-corazon-opening-second-location-in-crossroads-2/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. MIKCexplore, “Coffee & Culture: Café Corazón” (Crossroads profile). https://mikcexplore.com/home/2022/1/11/profile-cafe-corazon-crossroads ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Feast Magazine, “With its second location, Café Corazón will bring yerba mate, empanadas and more to the Crossroads Arts District” (May 10, 2021). https://www.feastmagazine.com/kansas-city/article_aa795bfc-f16d-11eb-821b-2797ca7ad1d9.html ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Startland News, “Mr. K winner sipped deeply with community; now it’s savoring Small Business of the Year accolades” (May 2026). https://startlandnews.com/2026/05/mr-k-award-cafe-corazon/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

7. Dos Mundos Bilingual Newspaper, “Café Corazón opens in Westport” (Nov 29, 2019). http://dosmundos.com/2019/11/29/cafe-corazon-opens-in-westport/ ↩

8. KC Chamber, “Café Corazón Grand Opening in Brookside” (June 7, 2025). https://www.kcchamber.com/current-topics/cafe-corazon-grand-opening-in-brookside/ ↩

9. Café Corazón menu — official site (https://www.cafecorazonkc.com/), MIKCexplore “Cafe Corazón, A Beacon of Culture in KC” (Sept 25, 2025, https://mikcexplore.com/home/2025/9/25/drinking-coffee-in-kc-cafe-corazon), and Yelp itemized menu (https://www.yelp.com/menu/caf%C3%A9-coraz%C3%B3n-kansas-city-4). Accessed 2026-06-17. Asserts: signature Latin/Indigenous drinks — Café de Olla ($6.99), Atole de Canela ($6.50), Churro Atole Latte ($7.49), Horchata Latte ($7.49, also iced), Dulce de Leche Latte ($7.49, also iced), Mocha Azteca / Spicy Mayan Mocha / Mocha Sevilla ($7.99 ea.), Café Bombón ($6.49), Café Cubano ($4.99), Café con Leche ($5.99); espresso classics (Cappuccino $4.99, Latte $5.99, Macchiato $4.49); latte flights, cold brew, churro/Peruvian cacao/panela builds; traditional Argentine yerba mate, chai/matcha/tea lattes, hot chocolate, Latin sodas ($7.49), espresso martini; food — empanadas, tamales, conchas/alfajores/Latin pastries, Brookside merienda platters. Yelp flags “menu may not be up to date.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰