Mostra Coffee has expanded into Torrey Hills.

The new corner cafe is on the ground floor of the Torrey Plaza by Breakthrough complex on Vista Sorrento Parkway, replacing Nostalgia Coffee. This is the 2020 Roaster of the Year’s fifth cafe in San Diego, joining locations in Carmel Mountain Ranch, 4S Ranch, Hillcrest and Banker’s Hill.

Recently, Mostra was recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 100 Small Businesses in the category of “Disrrupters” celebrating businesses that provide groundbreaking products or services: “These businesses embody innovation and creativity, challenging the status quo and setting new industry benchmarks.”

Mostra Coffee owners Mike Arquines, Beverly Magtanong, Jelynn Malone and Sam Magtanong. (Courtesy Mostra)

Mostra specializes in drip coffee, pour overs and espresso drinks like the signature créme brûlée lattes, torched lattes inspired by the classic dessert with a caramelized topping and house vanilla syrup. They also serve up coffee cold with cold brews such as the One Bra-Zillion Coconuts, a Brazil cold brew coffee infused with Philippine coconut and vanilla bean, or the Choconana, with house banana milk, vanilla and cinnamon.

Founded by Filipino-Americans Jelynn Malone, Beverly Magtanong, Sam Magtanong and Mike Arquines, Mostra is rooted in family.

“My partners are all Filipino and culturally, it is about family, love, inclusion and community. We apply that into our store because that’s who we are as people,” said Malone. “Our mantra is ‘Be the reason people see the goodness in humanity’. Coffee is our vehicle to spread good and fulfill our mission to provide jobs.”

Mostra’s origins go back to a 4S Ranch garage and a one-pound coffee roaster, and two lifelong best friends Malone and Magtanong with absolutely zero coffee experience. Malone is an actress and TV host, and Magtanong is a professional opera singer. They never drank coffee and didn’t even own a coffee maker in their homes.

Their inspiration to start the business was rooted in the Phillippines, where they feel a deep connection to the country and its people. While in the Philippines doing charity work helping to build homes, the friends wanted to do something to create jobs and sustainable livelihoods for the people living there. They landed the idea of coffee when they discovered that the Philippines was once the fourth-largest producer of coffee in the world

The line was out the door on Mostra Coffees opening day in Torrey Hills. (Courtesy Mostra Coffee)

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“We got a vision to start a specialty coffee company that champions Philippine coffee and creates an international demand for Philippine coffee,” Malone said. “We felt so strongly that this is what we were supposed to do.”

There was a lot for them to learn and it was well…a grind. Their first beans weren’t actually from the Philippines and they sourced coffee from other countries for three years until they could find the best Philippine beans. When they started roasting in the garage, Magtanongs husband Sam joined as a partner. They brought in Arquines, a fine dining chef, as another business partner, who helped develop the coffee’s unique flavors.

“We figured it out,” Malone said.

Eventually, they opened up a roasting facility in a business park in Carmel Mountain Ranch. In addition to roasting coffee, they would open up new hours on certain days to serve up coffee—through word of mouth people started telling their friends about Mostra. On those few hours they would have lines forming in the business park.

“It was a full-blown production facility, it wasn’t the cute, quaint coffee shop that people would imagine but people kept showing up,” Malone said. “It was a really cool thing to see.”

In 2018, Mostra (pronounced like “Doing the most”) opened their first cafe in a Carmel Mountain Ranch shopping center close by the roasting facility, a center anchored by Home Depot, and response from the community was huge.

Mostra had started in 2013 and seven years later they were named 2020 Roaster of the Year by Roast Magazine, one of the biggest awards a roaster can get. They were doing something right.

While they continue to source coffee from all over the world, they are now the largest purchaser of Philippine specialty coffee in the United States. One of their most popular Filipino blends is Ghost Bear—the vanilla and stone fruit notes of the beans are complemented by chocolate and caramel flavors. A percentage of sales from all of their Philippine coffee retail bags go back to the country, to invest in the local infrastructure and pay farmers beyond standard fair trade.

And Malone is also now a coffee drinker.

“What I realized is that I wasn’t drinking coffee before because I wasn’t drinking speciality coffee—it’s like the best coffee,” she said. “The flavors are more delicate…it’s not my grandpa’s cup of coffee I tasted as a kid.”

When Mostra was called to take over the Nostalgia space in Torrey Hills, they jumped at the chance. They had been wanting to move toward the coast and as their kids play soccer at Surf Sports Park, they are frequently in the area. (The soccer moms were stoked when Mostra became the official coffee of the San Diego Wave this year.)

In a super quick transformation, the cafe underwent many aesthetic changes to create the classic, and modern Mostra vibe and experience. An opening day celebration on Oct. 27 was “insane” with crowds.

“It’s a business park, not in a shopping center, and you just don’t know what it’s going to be like, especially on weekends,” Malone said. “But people came through and it was like a party.”

The new Mostra Coffee cafe in Torrey Hills Torrey Plaza on Vista Sorrento Parkway. (Courtesy Mostra Coffee)

The line was out the door and down the sidewalk for hours, people crowding into the shop for their coffee fix. For the opening, Chef Arquines had whipped up breakfast sandwiches with egg and archara, a tart pickled Filipino condiment made from grated papaya and Buko Pandan Ube-ignets, beignets with ube and Pandan, topped with toasted coconut and powered sugar.

While many in attendance were Mostra fans who had never been to this part of town, Malone is hoping to connect with the locals and let them know they are there. “It’s really exciting because we can start building community in the area,” Malone said.

Malone is still “doing the most,” juggling being a soccer mom and doing TV hosting and acting, traveling back and forth to Los Angeles. She will start filming a new movie at the beginning of next year: “I cannot complain,” she said. “Everything I’ve ever wanted is happening.”

Mostra has come a long way from the one-pound roaster in the garage. The 25-pound roaster in their production facility is a “workhorse and they are now running five cafes with more to come. The sixth Mostra location is set to open in Mira Mesa and they have been also awarded a spot in the new San Diego Airport Terminal 1.

“The whole thing is surreal, it’s incredible, it’s humbling,” said Malone. “I think what’s the most special about it is we didn’t drink coffee or know anything about coffee. The whole thing was literally built on a vision.” She said it is gratifying to look back and see how many people they have employed through coffee, both in the Philippines and in San Diego, where now multiple family members run stores: “It’s really rewarding to say the least.”

Mostra Coffee is located at 10945 Vista Sorrento Parkway.