I was excited to check out the soft opening for Roland's Cafe Market Bar. I am giving them a soft 5 stars for the first round. Upon entering, I liked the hospitality, the décor with the succulents as table centerpieces and found it to be nothing flashy but appreciated the fresh, contemporary look with soft Mexican kitchen touches. The open kitchen concept is welcome and the acoustics seem okay for conversation for such a large space.
They had ROC^2 coffee on drip with an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe bean. Very nice. Other coffee offerings (I had to ask) were a Spanish coffee with powdered milk and a Mexican mocha. The barista was very knowledgeable so mad respect there. I asked what the faves on the menu were and the response was "anything with chorizo." I can now agree with that 100%. I had the Chorizo Quesadilla and WOW. Something so simple was so well done. Paired with the ROC^2 Coffee, I couldn't have asked for better.
I am also impressed with the logistics that went into ensuring the finest quality ingredients were part of the process: "Recently, Armando [Hernandez] drove down to Chihuahua to pick up 500 pounds of chiles. He did this just so that his chile Colorado would taste a shade more like the ones from home." (Source: Phoenix New Times Article, Chris Malloy, April 17, 2018.) Now that is dedication to excellence. I really want this place to make it.
Other notables include gender neutral bathrooms and an open hand washing concept. Soft five stars will become hard five stars once they fix logistics: flies in the baked goods display case because there was no backing to keep them out; to-go waiting area bench gave me wood splinters in my pants; no coffee drink descriptions; ALL forgiving because brand new for the first week.