Phenomenal coffee in an approachable service: Plata Coffee moves to Los Ranchos

BY ALLISON CARPENTER JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Plata Coffee has been around for six years but this month the company finally found a location big enough for their café to thrive.

Aaron Ketner and his wife Rose Kerkmans moved their coffee shop Plata to Los Ranchos this November, fulfilling their dream of being a true neighborhood café.

“The thought of having regulars was really wonderful to me,” Kerkmans said.

Plata’s first home was a little space Downtown on Eighth and Silver on the bottom floor of an apartment complex.

“That walnut countertop was our very first countertop,” Ketner said. The countertop in question sits in a corner of the new café, the smallest of all the new surfaces at their new Los Ranchos store.

Before landing their dream spot in Los Ranchos, the couple in 2019 moved to Sawmill Marketplace near Old Town “That’s where we really got to grow,” Ketner said.

Sawmill exposed them to a bustling tourist market but over the four years at Sawmill they grew to miss having regulars like they’d had Downtown.

Downtown, they had five regulars who came every day, Kerkmans said.

So, they started looking for a new location almost two years ago.

“Albuquerque is tricky because there just seems to be a coffee shop everywhere you turn,” Kerkmans said.

Los Ranchos turned out to be a good fit as there wasn’t a nearby coffee shop to compete with and it was close to Ketner’s day job in architecture. The couple would often go to a brewery, Steel Bender Brewyard, next door to what would become the future home of their dream cafe.

“We would go to Steel Bender for beers and I’d be like: ‘That space is probably way too expensive,’” Ketner joked.

Ketner finally took the chance to put in an offer and in November 2024 they opened.

“There was an older couple from the next street over and they brought over a board game and we were like that’s exactly what we haven’t had,” Ketner said.

Order up!

Plata offers a rotating selection of locally roasted coffee. This quarter they have Iconik, from a Santa Fe roaster.

They have had 16 roasters over the years and “we haven’t had a repeat yet,” Ketner said.

Residents in this community may have never tried some of these smaller local roasters and Ketner takes pride in introducing them to the neighborhood.

Ketner’s love of coffee was born when he worked at the Humble Coffee Company near the University of New Mexico while he was finishing up college.

His go-to coffee order is an americano, a beverage that’s made with only espresso and water, and Kerkmans’ coffee order is a honey latte.

If coffee isn’t your cup of tea, Plata also partners with local tea vendors. Right now they are partnered with Moons Coffee and Tea, a local mother-daughter duo, and tea.o.graphy in Taos.

“We have phenomenal coffee from phenomenal companies and we do it in such an approachable way,” Kerkmans said.

Plata Coffee is located at 8325 Second St. NW in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.