Soundtrack Coffee opens at downtown Phoenix restaurant Chilte

For the past three years, Joe Ramirez worked on perfecting his lattes and matchas for customers to pick up from his Peoria home and at pop-up events around the Valley. Now, the self-taught barista has a residency inside one of downtown Phoenix’s hottest restaurants.

Soundtrack Coffee soft opened inside Chilte on Grand Avenue this week.

On Wednesday, Ramirez set up behind the modern Mexican restaurant’s bar, his La Marzocco espresso machine, coffee grinder and housemade syrups all neatly tucked between tiered shelves of spirits and dehydrated cocktail garnishes.

The barista whisked matcha, pulled espresso shots and gently tipped warm, frothy oat milk into a charcoal-and-espresso latte on his official first day at the restaurant inside the Egyptian Motor Hotel.

“The energy and the vibe and the creativeness that Chilte has, the spirit of the place was always something that gets me excited,” he says.

Though the barista kicked off this residency with just coffee and tea, Ramriez has more queued up from Soundtrack.

A man froths milk at an espresso machine. — Ramirez brought his espresso machine to Chilte’s bar but will soon have his own cart in the restaurant.

Sara Crocker

‘A bartender’s touch’ with coffee

Ramirez doesn’t have a background in coffee or cooking. Instead, he’s spent the last 20 years working for QuikTrip, most recently as a store manager. Passionate about food and interested in trying something outside of his corporate gig, he started working as a private caterer. The coffee and cocktail pairings he offered quickly became favorites among his clients.

As his catering gigs began to center on coffee, Ramirez also began offering morning drink pickups from his West Valley home in 2023 under the name Slow Pour. A punk rock and hardcore fan with a penchant for vinyl collecting, Ramirez later renamed the endeavor Soundtrack Coffee.

One customer included Ryan Moreno, the chef and owner of the now-shuttered SnapBack Pizzeria. After tasting the offerings, he invited Ramirez to pop up at the Grand Avenue pizzeria. It was Ramirez’s first walk-up service, and soon he was struggling to keep up with the onslaught of orders.

“We both didn’t realize how much hype we had at the time, and we ended up being slammed and in the weeds,” he says, recalling a line that wrapped around the building just a few blocks from the Egyptian Motor Hotel. “I had maybe 14 drinks on the menu because I just didn’t know what I was doing.”

Though the pop-up was “pretty much a mess,” Ramirez met some of the Chilte’s managers that day. Not only did they like the coffee the barista was making, but they also jumped in to help Ramirez get out of the weeds.

That opened the door for Soundtrack Coffee to connect with Chilte and its chef and co-owner, Lawrence “LT” Smith. During a Street Service brunch — an event Smith hosts at Chilte with other local chefs — he invited Soundtrack Coffee. Smith was impressed.

“It’s almost like he has a bartender’s touch,” Smith says. “I just love seeing his flavors and his creativity and just different things he parlays to coffee.”

A black charcoal latte, with the heart latte art in focus. — Soundtrack Coffee’s name is inspired by its owner’s love of vinyl and emo music.

Sara Crocker

What to order at Soundtrack Coffee

After seeing other coffee upstarts like Stroll Coffee and Indigo Room bootstrap their way into shared spaces, Ramirez wondered why he wasn’t committing fully to Soundtrack.

“I just felt like I was letting opportunities keep passing me by,” he says. “I thought, hey, there’s no better time than now.”

He resolved to go full force into coffee and recently left his management job.

Once Smith learned his friend was on the hunt for space, he offered the Grand Avenue restaurant.

“Right now it’s just a hotel lobby during the day,” Smith says. “That’s why I was just like, ‘Bro, come in and activate the space.’ It’s here.”

The three-year-old Chilte was initially open most of the day, then scaled back to dinner service and collaborations. In the mornings, hotel guests can pick up items, including drip Moxie Coffee and Suss Pastries, from the restaurant. Now, they’ll also have the specialty drinks and bites from Soundtrack Coffee to choose from.

Soundtrack’s opening menu includes classic options, including cortados, americanos and flat whites, along with a slate of specialty lattes featuring espresso or matcha. A drink infused with vanilla bean and piloncillo, plus a goth sip made with activated black charcoal and a black sesame caramel, are among those featured sips.

Other drinks have a dessert bent without becoming overly sweet. There’s a Mexican fried ice cream-inspired concoction made with a Cornflake syrup and cinnamon, and an ube latte made with an ube condensed milk, citrus bitters and an optional horchata syrup.

Ramirez also makes slow-fermented bagels and doughnuts under the moniker Crumb Slut. He anticipates rotating those morning treats onto the menu at Chilte going forward.

Though Ramirez is behind the bar now, he’s building a coffee cart to use in the dining room or, as the weather permits, on the restaurant’s patio. In time, he may consider his own brick-and-mortar cafe. For now, this residency is Ramirez’s focus.

“The goal is (to) get as many people excited about coming to that side of town or walking into that space in the morning,” he says.