Coffee or a tattoo? You can get either (or both) at this hidden Miami shop
Walk into White Rose Coffee shop and the barista at the counter asks, “Are you guys here for coffee or tattoos?”
For some, the answer is both.
White light pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows, washing over warm reclaimed wood floors and the marble counter where co-owner Joelle Maritza pulls fresh-brewed espresso drinks for her customers. Diners chat on a tan leather couch and peck away on laptops as traffic on Southwest Eighth Street zips by like an art installation.
And just under the soft alt rock music, a subtle buzzing like fluorescent light occasionally hums from the other room, a subliminal track. Behind a screen in an otherwise clear, open shop, framed in art-gallery white space, co-owner and tattoo artist Javier Betancourt applies his art.
Betancourt, whose tattoo work has been featured in The New York Times, wanted a space where customers that come to him from all over the world could lounge and wait while having great coffee. So he decided to combine the two ideas.
He partnered with Maritza to open the combined White Rose Coffee shop and Ocho Placas Tattoos, his longtime Calle Ocho parlor in the established Miami neighborhood where he grew up. It’s the only coffee spot for miles that isn’t a Cuban coffee ventanita.
“I love Cuban coffee, but I don’t want Cuban coffee all the time,” Betancourt said. “And there was no place to get this kind of coffee around here.”
Betancourt started with separate ideas.
He’d become known in the tattooing world for his intricate work at the original Ocho Placas, a 400-square-foot shop farther west, near Southwest 62nd Avenue and Southwest Eighth Street — where patrons from the unfortunate next-door dive bar woke up hung over on his stoop.
But it was his art school. There he went from drawing tattoos on paper for friends (while playing bass in punk bands) to learning from his late mentor Jose Carrera to create them on skin in 2006. When Carrera died suddenly in 2009, Betancourt took over the shop, along with a maligned lease in a sketchy strip mall.
“We had a name. But we never had a place worthy of that name,” Betancourt said.
He started small. When the pick-up bar three doors down got raided one too many times, the landlord offered the space to Betancourt. He instantly thought of a coffee shop that could serve as a lounge for his tattoo customers.
He’d met the owners of Per’la Specialty Roasters, founded in West Miami, at their local gym, and they worked together to set up a selection of coffees for White Rose — named for the flowers Betancourt incorporates into many of his tattoos.
Three spots down the mall, his Ocho Placas customers could relax with 16-hour cold brews, espresso drinks, pour overs and teas, with light bites from local bakers. They offered a selection of art books and one-off art pieces — a sort of improvised gallery space.
“I want something cool in the city because I didn’t have this when I was growing up around here,” he said.
Now, he needed someone to run it. Maritza, raised in Cutler Bay and studying art design at the University of Miami, took what she thought would be a simple part-time job as a barista at White Rose and spent two years there. As graduation day approached, Betancourt approached her with an idea: Why not find a better spot and combine the tattoo and coffee shop?
“I have this opportunity. How do I not take advantage of it?” Maritza asked herself.
They signed a lease on the new space — hopeful but mistimed, in December of 2019.
The pandemic shut down not only restaurants but tattoo shops, which were among the last businesses allowed to reopen over coronavirus concerns. But the pair went ahead with their plans, slowly gutting their new building.
Meanwhile, Betancourt booked private tattoo appointments and Maritza split time as an Uber driver and working for Per’la. It became a sort of blessing, she said, as she perfected her coffee-making skills, down to artistic latte designs.
It also gave Betancourt time to hone his idea for the new space.
He painted the walls white, like an art gallery, and partnered with artists to show their work. The current exhibit, by Brooklyn artist Joel Baca, is titled “Far Too Funny to be Tragic,” and an explainer of the work is printed in vinyl letters on the glass panes that overlook Calle Ocho.
They restored the old floors, patching them in spots with new white oak, creating a lived-in charm. The attached tattoo shop is negative space, with the colors inverted, giving each corner its own character.
The combined shop calls itself a “specialty coffee tattoo lobby” and a “working lounge and lifestyle café.”
Customers from the original coffee shop followed them, and found they didn’t have to be into tattoos to enjoy the new spot.
Caro Salcedo was a regular at the original White Rose, when she was in advertising and would meet a girlfriend there to co-work three times a week. Now she’s a part-time lifestyle photographer and full-time mom to 10-month-old Paolo, on her hip as she sipped a latte on a recent weekday visit.
“The light in here is beautiful and super inviting,” she said. “The vibe here is original. It’s just … chill.”
It’s already become a locals’ favorite.
“Our main thing is cultivating the things we like, our own subculture,” Betancourt said.
Sculptor Richie Moreno, who grew up in the neighborhood, walked eight blocks to talk over a new tattoo and found himself sipping an iced coffee in a shop unlike anything else he’s come across.
“It’s nice, thought out, really different,” he said. “You don’t find a lot of spots in Miami like this.”
It’s still not squeaky clean: The shop sits across from a pair of by-the-hour motels. But that’s OK with Betancourt. He’s happy to bring a cool, new feel to an older part of town he calls home.
“This area is what Miami is,” he said. “There is where I want the shop to be.”
White Rose Coffee and Ocho Placas Tattoo Company
Address: 4703 SW Eighth St., Miami
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday, until 3 p.m. Sunday
More info: Whiterose.coffee
This story was originally published October 6, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
