Popular Pasco café opens in special new spot at Columbia Center mall
Café con Arte will be serving up frothy lattes and sweet, bubbly Lotus drinks at a new location inside the Columbia Center mall in Kennewick starting Nov. 5.
A popular hub in downtown Pasco, the coffee shop will have a service window inside The Vault, a new art gallery and artisan marketplace featuring 21 local and regional artists.
It’s tucked away on the northwest end of the mall near the children’s play area and JCPenney.
The Vault opened on Sept. 6. It hosts exhibitions, showcases artists and offers art classes, like a ceramic and clay workshop on Nov. 17.
Collaborators and owners of The Vault, Nathan Robles and Matt Blatman, told the Tri-City Herald that they have a vision to create an art movement and help build up a thriving art industry in the Tri-Cities where young, local artists can be successful making art. They’ve partnered with local contractor Chet Childers.
Robles and Blatman grew up in the area and now live in east Kennewick. They’re artists themselves. Robles creates metalwork, and Blatman is a former street artist.
Café con Arte owner Saul Martinez said that the owners wanted to offer coffee as a way to make the space more inviting, especially in a quieter part of the mall.
“Walking in, you’re no longer in the mall,” Blatman said. He pulled inspiration from galleries across the country for The Vault’s design.
Martinez taught art for 20 years before opening Café con Arte two years ago. The Pasco café’s walls serve as a rotation gallery for local artists and monthly exhibitions.
So combining coffee and art again is a natural fit.
The new spot will offer special drinks and pastries.
Martinez is relying on his current team of seven employees to operate both locations. He said he’s excited to collaborate with The Vault and support the gallery’s events.
Hours are 9 a.m.-2 p.m. seven days a week. Note that the coffee shop will be open before the mall is open 10 a.m-8 p.m.
Customers can order coffee on the Joe.coffee website or app and pick up coffee from a door by the mall’s northwest entrance between 9-10 a.m.
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
