For as long as she can remember, Arizona native Melina Ruan Serrano has been surrounded by food and family. Her parents owned and operated restaurants (most recently, El Pacifico. She grew up in their kitchens, training, learning and dreaming. Now, it’s her turn. In early July, Ruan Serrano opened Malegria, which she describes as a Latin cafe on Grand Avenue and Fillmore Street near downtown Phoenix.
“My parents helped me, of course, with the permits and stuff like that. But opening this, it's always been a dream of mine,” Ruan Serrano says. “It’s a way to share my culture, especially coming from being all three (cultures); Mexican, Guatemalan and Salvadoran, and just being able to show that part of my world."
The turning point? A random scroll on her phone and a bit of serendipity. She was casually browsing commercial real estate listings when she came across the space.
“They had just listed it, and I instantly fell in love with the pictures of the back patio and just how small it was,” she says. Ruan Serrano recalls thinking, “Oh, this is the perfect first place.”
Its manageable size and its location on Grand Avenue felt like fate. She had grown up nearby, in the Garfield neighborhood of downtown Phoenix.
“Downtown is always a special part of my heart," she says.
At Malegria, tradition and creativity blend together. Drawing from her Mexican, Salvadoran and Guatemalan heritage, Ruan Serrano developed a lineup of menu items that celebrate cultural overlap while honoring what makes each cuisine unique. Before the opening, she tested recipes with friends and family to land on the right mix.
Take the horchatas, for example. The Mexican version features rice, cinnamon, milk and sugar. The Salvadoran style is nutty, made with sesame seeds, two types of pumpkin seeds, peanuts and a seed native to El Salvador called morro. At Malegria, you can try both.
Alongside the horchatas, the cafe offers coffee sourced from Guatemala and a range of fountain drinks. Alcoholic offerings are in the works.
The food lineup spans breakfast, lunch and dinner, available all day. A takeout window also serves grab-and-go items. So far, the standouts are hearty breakfast sandwiches. The Mexi is a chorizo-stuffed bite made with Schreiner’s Fine Sausage, queso fresco, avocado, crema verde and a fried egg. The Central, another morning standout, is a comforting combo of sweet plantains, eggs and beans tucked into a sandwich.
The battered fish tacos are a must-try for lunch, and for dinner, consider the Enchiladas Guate, a tostada with ground beef, cabbage-beet slaw and sliced boiled egg or the Mineras, red sauce enchiladas.
For dessert, there's a rotating pastry of the week. Hits include banana cream pie with pecans and dulce de leche and a berry cream pie. A cinnamon roll with icing and pecans is coming soon.
The cafe’s name, Malegria, is a nod to a 2024 album of the same name by Reyna Tropical.
“On the album, there's an interlude where her brother explains what Malegria means in their sense of music,” Ruan Serrano explains. “It's a Spanish word. It's not very common in Mexico, (but) it's somewhat common in Central America. It means bitter-sweet…it's a tough translation because even in Spanish, there's not a definition for it, but it's how sadness and happiness all combine.”
This unique word and it's meaning stuck with Ruan Serrano since she heard it, and she felt like it was the right fit for her new chapter.
The cafe may be new, but it’s already caught the neighborhood’s eye. A vibrant mural on the building’s exterior, painted by local artist Sabrina Rivera, has helped draw attention and foot traffic.
“Our opening week, we definitely had a good turnout," she says. "A lot of the community members tell me when they come, ‘Oh, I saw the process of the mural being painted, I just wanted to stop by.'”
With roots in the neighborhood and a vision that blends heritage with heart, Malegria is more than a cafe. It’s a love letter to culture, family and Phoenix itself.
