PUEBLO, Colo. (KOAA) — What started as a teenager’s dream inspired by Volkswagen vans and coffee has grown into a beloved gathering place in Pueblo, where family, art and community come together over a cup of coffee.
For more than nine years, the small business known as Love Mug has served customers from its location on Pueblo’s east side, complete with a weathered Volkswagen Beetle parked outside that has become part of the shop’s identity.
“We’re all bug people,” said Krissy Arellano, who runs the shop alongside her husband. “When I met him, he was driving a silver Volkswagen and I was driving an orange and white van.”
The family’s connection to Volkswagens runs deep. Photos lining the walls trace decades of memories tied to the iconic vehicles, from high school to grandchildren.
“We have a wall of the history of our photos with bugs and stuff all the way from when we were in high school down to our grandkids,” Arellano added.
The idea for Love Mug began years earlier in Rocky Ford, when their daughter Shay Grossen opened the original coffee shop in 2010.
“My aunt actually had this idea of having a Volkswagen van coffee shop when I was like 12 or 13,” Grossen said. “They were looking for names, and I was like, ‘The Love Mug, you can’t name it anything else.’”
Grossen said she took college classes specifically to learn how to open a coffee shop before launching the business in Rocky Ford. Eventually, she sold the shop to an employee to keep it locally owned. When Grossen and her family moved to Pueblo to help start a church plant, her parents decided they could not step away from the coffee business.
“My parents were just like, ‘Oh, we can’t do without a coffee shop. We have to do it,’” Grossen said with a smile.
A friend who owned the Pueblo building approached the family with an opportunity. The family transformed the space into the current Love Mug, blending coffee, photography and local art into one community-centered business. Grossen’s father operates a photography business from the back of the shop, while local artists display and sell their work inside.
“We love our employees, and we love being able to have a lot of family working here,” Grossen said. “And then extra people who just start feeling like family.”
For customers, the atmosphere appears to resonate. During interviews inside the shop, several patrons interrupted conversations to praise the business and its welcoming environment.
Outside, the aging Volkswagen Beetle still sits near the road — faded, worn and unmistakable.
“It’s kind of sad now,” Arellano said with a laugh about the old bug out front. “But it’s the sign. I love it. It’s got a lot of history.”
This was part of our Convos and Coffee segment, where Senior Reporter Tony Keith and Meteorologist Alan Rose visit local coffee shops to connect with the community in a different way. One of the biggest topics people wanted to discuss was potholes in the Pueblo West area. News5 is working to do follow-up coverage on potholes in the Pueblo West area in the coming weeks.
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