When you ask a Las Crucen where you should gather for a cup of coffee or a light lunch in the downtown area, inevitably you’ll land on Grounded. 

The coffee/wine/pizza location is hard to miss when driving or walking down Main Street. Sit inside or on the quaint outdoor patio for a while and you’ll see people of all kinds pass through the common gathering ground. 

Grounded opened up on the corner of Main Street and Las Cruces Avenue in early 2022 and quickly became a haven for people looking for a place to congregate coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, it has led the charge in the reinvigoration of the city’s downtown area. What started as a family’s dream of owning a small coffee shop has expanded into a full, bustling plaza of food, shops, music, and human connection.

La Esquina Plaza is home not only to Grounded but to a small boutique business, a florist, a tattoo shop, a permanent jewelry shop, and several other small local businesses. Just a couple years ago, many of the spaces were empty; now, thanks in part to the Espiritu family’s having taken over management of the plaza, the patio connecting all of these ventures is almost always buzzing with activity.

Grounded has brought not just the local community together but the operating family too. The Espiritu siblings work together just about every day and collaborate with their parents constantly to create the dynamic that has helped Grounded flourish.

“We all work so good together,” said Kendra Espiritu, one of the Grounded owners.

My typical go-to order is Grounded’s hot orange cinnamon latte with oat milk and a small Zia bowl—an acai bowl with strawberries, kiwi, mango, and house granola. I grab my food once my name is called out and settle into one of their seating areas for a couple of hours of work or conversation. 

Depending on my mood, I might snuggle into a booth and write for a few hours. Other days, I’ll meet a group of friends under the “plant table,” where you’ll inevitably bump into the greenery. And other days, I might find a table on the outdoor patio and soak up some sun while enjoying the hustle and bustle of the plaza. Grounded is one of my favorite places to people watch too, with dozens of locals and tourists visitors going in and out of the space throughout the day, as well as others, like me, who plant roots.

Grounded is unique in Las Cruces, with its vegan coffee bar, only offering almond, oat, coconut, and macadamia nut milks. Having a vegan component was important to Kendra, who, along with her sister, Kaitlin, is vegan. She said the plant-based coffee bar was tough for some customers to “get on board with” at first, but people warmed to it as they gave alternative milks a try. “A lot of the people that were a little hesitant or maybe a little pessimistic about it are regulars now,” Kendra said. 

And the decision to not carry the vegan menu throughout the business was made so as not to “pigeonhole” themselves into a narrow food category. Instead, Grounded is what Kendra calls “plant forward.”

“That’s kind of our motto: plant-based bar, plant-forward kitchen. And with that being said, it’s just like making as many things in-house as possible. The least amount of processed foods. We make 99 percent of everything in-house.”

The rest of the menu features vegan options but is not solely vegan, ensuring everyone will find something they can order.

One of the main attractions of the eatery is their homemade pizza. A pizza oven takes over a large portion of the kitchen, and you can always tell when a pie is cooking because the smoke outside from the oven smells like yeast and tomatoes. 

While the menu is streamlined, the coffee shop also offers seasonal items that include both drinks and food. For the spring 2024 season, Grounded offered a coconut cream cold brew drink, which I found was particularly delicious with oat milk. Food specials included a caprese flatbread and a blackberry mint flatbread with goat cheese. Over the summer, the eatery is offering a peach mozzarella pizza, strawberry matcha, a lemon cream latte, and chipotle lime salmon with mango salsa and quinoa.

“We had to really be thoughtful and meticulous about the menu and bar items that we offer,” Kendra said, speaking to their small but carefully curated menu. “The specials [menu] is where we get to be creative and kind of veer off from our style.”

Kendra’s background is in developing menus and curating drinks. She said she likes experimenting with traditional Mexican flavors and “incorporating them into something more modern and kind of upscale.” She described it as taking a “cocktail twist” on coffee drinks. 

As for the food specials, staff get the chance to flex their imagination through menu competitions. They submit ideas during staff meetings and everyone gets to try the creation and vote. “It’s a really collective thing,” Kendra said.

At any given time, you’ll find people trying the newly released seasonal offerings or sticking to their tried-and-true usuals. I enjoy my usuals, but I can’t let a special go untried. My favorite by far was a 2023 concoction—the orange blossom cold brew.

But no matter how much you grow to love a special, you shouldn’t get too attached because it may not make a reappearance. But that’s OK, because the regular menu has some hidden gems too. Like the mole salmon salad I only recently tried, or the shroom pizza. 

I might spend too much time at Grounded compared to other coffee shops or lunch spots in Las Cruces, but no other location offers the same ambience as in the heart of downtown. The eatery is the perfect blend of the tradition of the area and experimentation with flavors and ingredients.

As soon as you think you have a handle on the family’s business, they pull something else out of the hat. Kendra said new developments are in the works, so stay tuned to see the next surprise Grounded has for its customers.

📍300 N Main Street, Las Cruces, 575-571-4047