Send a text

Here’s the story of an SGV native building community through coffee. Raised in Covina and West Covina and now rooted in Pasadena, Melissa Spolar blends events, marketing, nonprofit work, and café culture to connect neighbors and small businesses. She created the Pasadena Coffee Passport to spotlight the city’s specialty shops and invite locals and visitors to explore together.

Her community-building chops were sharpened inside social enterprise coffee, where she helped operationalize youth workforce programs and day-to-day café impact in Pasadena. That experience informs how she curates shops, designs activations, and measures what actually moves the needle for small businesses.

Looking ahead, she’s developing the Highland Park Coffee Passport and laying the groundwork for Nightcap Collective, a neighborhood social club meant to spark face-to-face connection after hours. The goal is simple: create intentional spaces—day and night—where people can meet, talk, and support local spots.

In this episode, we dig into how a simple idea—stamp your way through local cafés—became a platform for small-business discovery, creator collaborations, and neighborhood pride. We cover partner selection, passport mechanics, shop economics, and how coffee culture can anchor inclusive community spaces across the San Gabriel Valley and Northeast LA. Keywords: Pasadena Coffee Passport, Highland Park Coffee Passport, Pasadena coffee shops, SGV cafés, coffee crawl, coffee community, social enterprise, Nightcap Collective.

__________

Music Credits

Intro
Euphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OG

Stinger
Scarlet Fire (Sting), Otis McDonald, YouTube Audio Library

Outro
Euphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OG

__________________

My SGV Podcast:

Website: www.mysgv.net
Newsletter: Beyond the Mic
Patreon: MySGV Podcast
[email protected]