Iwana Coffee Gives Las Vegas Fresh Roasts of Colombian Gems

Inside the Iwana Coffee cafe in the Las Vegas Arts District. All images courtesy of Iwana Coffee.

A jackpot of freshly roasted Colombian coffees awaits guests at the sister-owned Iwana Coffee shop in the Las Vegas Arts District, where in-house roasting recently launched. 

The cafe opened by sisters Alexandra Rodriguez and Karol Rodriguez Borrero in mid-2024 welcomed a Diedrich DR-3 into the shop last fall. Now, the Iwana crew is developing and executing roast profiles in collaboration with the company’s Colombia-based master roaster, who previously shipped coffees by air to Nevada.

The 2,100-square-foot shop pairs mostly white walls with bold pops of purple, including an accent wall bearing the message “Fudge Your Bad Vibes.”

“The color purple plays a central role in the space, symbolizing creativity, transformation, and a sense of elevated consciousness, values that align closely with our approach to specialty coffee and storytelling,” Alexandra Rodriguez and Karol Rodriguez Borrero jointly told DCN via email.

Works by Las Vegas-based creative agency Pretty Done appear throughout the space, while natural wood accents and potted plants push the vibe in a tropical direction.

Pretty Done also custom-painted the white case of the Fiorenzato F83 E Pro grinder paired with a 2-group Sanremo Racer espresso machine. On the same bar, pourovers are prepared with Origami drippers designed to spotlight each coffee’s terroir and post-harvest processing.

“[Pretty Done] was selected not only to support local art, but also because it resonates with the expressive, contemporary identity of Iwana and the Arts District itself,” the sisters told DCN. “Every element within Iwana — down to the tools we use daily — is a representation of art, intention and craftsmanship.”

Alexandra Rodriguez and Karol Rodriguez Borrero moved to the United States seven years ago, working in other industries while building a vision for coffee shops with a vertically integrated supply chain tied to their family’s 80-hectare farm, Finca La Esmeralda.

Located mostly around 1,700 meters above sea level, La Esmeralda includes 30 hectares of forest reserve. Roughly 70,000 coffee trees grow across the rest, including Cenicafé 1, Pink Bourbon, Caturra and other varieties. Gesha and Pacamara are grown at 1,900 meters.

At FARO Coffee Hub in Colombia.

At a processing center in Neiva, freshly picked cherries undergo natural processing with anaerobic fermentation, semi-washed (honey) processing and fully washed processing. The sisters’ father, Luis Andrés Rodriguez, and their brother, Andrés Rodriguez Borrero, lead FARO Coffee Hub, the Colombian processing and exporting company that ships coffees from the family farms and other nearby farms. 

The sisters said they will soon be offering a Gesha-variety coffee that was purchased at a regional auction in Colombia for $65 per pound. “In this way, the Rodríguez family contributes both in Colombia and in Las Vegas to sustaining the specialty coffee industry, while offering the Arts District the highest-quality coffee from Colombia,” they said. 

With roasting now on site, Iwana plans to launch online sales and offer public classes and events in the cafe. The company also plans to open two more Las Vegas shops this year before expanding nationwide.

At FARO Coffee Hub in Colombia.

“We plan to continue investing in the United States. Our goal is to open 50 stores across the country over the next seven years,” the sisters said. “Additionally, we plan to enter the online market with subscription offerings for enthusiasts of both our existing and new products.”

Iwana Coffee is located at 61 W Utah Ave. in Las Vegas.

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