A hot cup of Coffee!! Tell your story

Two women's love of coffee, books and movies comes full circle.

Symone Lucero and Candice Orwat's love of coffee shops started when they were eight years old, going to book clubs with their mothers.“We would meet at a coffee shop and talk about the book, our lives, hang out and yeah, drink coffee,” Lucero said.It wasn't just the coffee they loved, but the community.“I think that people really need safe spaces,” Orwat said. “They want to feel like they belong.”When college took the best friends to different states, they made a promise."We started talking about opening a coffee shop when we were in high school," Lucero said. "Then we were like, how serious are we? Is this going to be our lives? And then we made a pact.”The pact was to open their own coffee shop before they turned 30-years-old.After college, they moved to Seattle, bought a caravan trailer... and hit a few roadblocks."Our goal was to renovate that and make that our shop," Lucero said. "We worked on it for about a year and then realized, we're not construction workers. We were like, okay, so I guess that part of the dream didn't work, but another part will."They moved back to New Mexico, lived with their parents, worked full-time jobs, used their combined savings and signed a lease on a coffeeshop in Los Ranchos. The timing was perfect – just a few weeks before their 30th birthdays.The renovated the coffeeshop themselves for six months – breaking down walls, painting and designing every detail. The interior is inspired by their travels and love of film. This is why they named it Montage, which literally means a series of shots.But that wasn't their only reason for the name. The two say they were always driven by their hope to create a safe, inspiring place where people can create montages of their own.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
Symone Lucero and Candice Orwat's love of coffee shops started when they were eight years old, going to book clubs with their mothers.

“We would meet at a coffee shop and talk about the book, our lives, hang out and yeah, drink coffee,” Lucero said.

It wasn't just the coffee they loved, but the community.

“I think that people really need safe spaces,” Orwat said. “They want to feel like they belong.”

When college took the best friends to different states, they made a promise.

"We started talking about opening a coffee shop when we were in high school," Lucero said. "Then we were like, how serious are we? Is this going to be our lives? And then we made a pact.”

The pact was to open their own coffee shop before they turned 30-years-old.

After college, they moved to Seattle, bought a caravan trailer... and hit a few roadblocks.

"Our goal was to renovate that [the caravan] and make that our shop," Lucero said. "We worked on it for about a year and then realized, we're not construction workers. We were like, okay, so I guess that part of the dream didn't work, but another part will."

They moved back to New Mexico, lived with their parents, worked full-time jobs, used their combined savings and signed a lease on a coffeeshop in Los Ranchos. The timing was perfect – just a few weeks before their 30th birthdays.

The renovated the coffeeshop themselves for six months – breaking down walls, painting and designing every detail. The interior is inspired by their travels and love of film. This is why they named it Montage, which literally means a series of shots.

But that wasn't their only reason for the name. The two say they were always driven by their hope to create a safe, inspiring place where people can create montages of their own.