Fueled by craft coffee and a love for unique experiences, Sueño Coffee Co. is a Mexican daydream brought to life.
What started as a small pop-up coffee venture has blossomed into a cozy café, located inside a cottage-like house near the heart of downtown Livingston at 1744 D Street.
Ariel Hernandez, raised in Livingston and a graduate of Livingston High School, left the small agricultural town like many others to pursue education and career opportunities outside the Central Valley. However, he never strayed far from home.
Hernandez and his wife, both coffee connoisseurs, eventually returned to turn their passion for coffee culture into the latest Central Valley coffee hub: Sueño Coffee Co.
The couple drew inspiration from their travels and different experiences, where they explored vibrant coffee cultures in places like Los Angeles, Chicago, and even Denmark. They dreamed of bringing those rich experiences back to their hometown.
“When we would come back to Livingston, we would have to drive out of town to get coffee in Merced or Turlock,” Hernandez told the Times over a cup of their signature Sueño iced coffee. “We eventually thought— why don’t we bring coffee culture here to our community where we grew up?”
Sueño Coffee Co. is more than just coffee — it’s about cultivating community, encouraging exploration, and offering locals a taste of something new.
The Latino-owned café offers a menu stacked with Mexican-influenced flavors. Customer favorites include café de olla, dulce de leche, horchata, mazapán, and Mexican mocha. Sueño also offers classic coffee drinks, matcha, and a rotating selection of seasonal creations. Their current spring menu consists of a blueberry latte, blueberry matcha, honey vanilla latte, and a blueberry foam topping that can be added on top of any drink.
“You drink coffee cuando tienes sueño (when you’re sleepy) or when you’re working on your sueños (your dreams),” Hernandez said of the meaning behind their name. “It’s also about motivating people to chase what they have been too scared to do.”
A black cat designed as a Día de los Muertos sugar skull serves as the café’s mascot and branding logo. The cat came as inspiration for the cafe after the couple adopted a stray cat, Ginger, living on the residential property before it was turned into a cafe.
“Cats are also always sleeping,” Hernandez said of its contribution to the name, “Always lounging around … We also wanted to add our culture into the image, and that’s why we went with a sugar skull. Day of the Dead is the time of the year when you connect and dream about our past loved ones, when we spend time to honor them.”
Sueño offers a variety of sandwiches, bagels, and pastries — including Mexican conchas and a signature horchata croissant. The cafe is committed to maintaining a menu full of locally made pastries and breads while continuing to expand its in-house syrup and special menu offerings.
“We make everything ourselves. Our horchata, the canela, the vanilla — we soak and cook the rice water ourselves. Our café de olla is simple, it’s the way we grew up drinking it. The same can be said for our Mexican hot chocolate.”
Adding to the family collaboration, his sister Consuelo Hernandez, inspired to learn how to make bagels through COVID, supplies the café’s fresh bagels through her brand Rise and Grain Bagels.
“I started doing my own bagels because I couldn’t find a good grocery bagel,” Hernandez explained. “I thought, ‘It can’t be that hard!’ I Googled, YouTubed it, and at 10 at night tried making them. When they came out, I thought, ‘Cool!’”
Hernandez credits the cafe not only for evolving her bagel-making skills but also for contributing to her love for community collaborations, an initiative that her brother also hopes to grow.
Community collaborations are a core value for Sueño Coffee Co. Hernandez emphasized that beyond the partnership with his sister and wife, he hopes to continue reconnecting with old friends and supporting other local creatives, whether it’s partnering with a childhood friend who now makes T-shirts, or featuring a local roaster’s small-batch roasted coffee beans.
“I want to continue working with just random people,” Hernandez laughed. “I want to get to know more people and collaborate.”
Coming up next for Sueño Coffee Co. are two community events lined up for May.
• A Mother’s Day Pop-Up Floral Event on Mexican Mother’s Day (May 10) and American Mother’s Day (May 11), featuring build-your-own and pre-made bouquets from two local flower vendors.
• Carros y Café (Cars and Coffee) will be hosted on May 24, right outside the café, featuring a group of local vendors.
At Sueño Coffee Co., the dream is just getting started. The coffee spot is open Thursday through Monday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays and 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekends. You can find Sueño on Instagram @suenocoffeeco and Rise and Grain Bagels @riseandgrainbagels.