At Grounded by The Collective, the newest Filipino coffee shop in the East Village, you can customize basic americanos and iced lattes with ube-infused milk, pandan cold foam, matcha and more.
Writer: Hailey Evans
Photographer: Leah Heagy
It’s not every day that you walk into a coffee shop and hear a mother ringing up customers, a father grinding up coffee beans and siblings and in-laws bustling around each other as they fulfill latte orders. But that’s exactly the scene you’ll see at Grounded by The Collective. The new Filipino shop in the East Village is a family affair, owned by seven siblings who refer to themselves as “The Collective.”
For the siblings, the shop is more than a business. It’s a physical manifestation of their love, collaboration and creativity as a family unit.
Oldest to youngest, the siblings are: Daphne Pruisner, Cher Smith, Zeph Folkerts, Mayumi Findley, Pamela Fernandez, Dwight Fernandez and Raven Demir. Plus all of their spouses. Their parents, Dan and Dodi Fernandez, also help out.
“We always wanted to have a business together,” Raven said, noting that their childhood memories inspired their plan to sell coffee and flowers. “We would always wake up to the smell of coffee, our parents drinking coffee. And we would always want to go to farmers markets and get coffee and flowers. As we got older and went separate ways, coffee shops would become where we’d all meet up.”
Grounded started in 2023 as a pop-up coffee stand at the farmers markets in Perry and downtown Des Moines. They opened their East Village cafe in July.
All of the siblings divide and conquer the daily operations based on their skills and interests. Raven and Zeph started developing drinks for the menu. Pamela and Dwight now live in New York City, but they still cover the accounting and marketing. Everybody has full-time jobs outside the coffee shop.
Since his retirement, their father has become something of an espresso nerd and is always tinkering around with the formulas to grind and brew the beans. Many of the siblings’ spouses, and even their children, have found ways to get involved in the cafe, too. Zeph grows the flowers they sell in bouquets, and her husband, Dustin, grows tomatoes that they use in some of the food items on the menu.
Family history
Now that some of the siblings have moved out of Iowa, the coffee shop helps keep them grounded and connected to each other, said Zeph. That’s in the name, after all.
The family moved to Iowa in 2000. The siblings’ parents were both engineers in the Philippines, but when they arrived in the States, their father became a minister and the family moved every few years as he took on different assignments. The siblings formed their own kind of community. As Zeph put it, “All we had was each other, but how lucky were we that there were seven of us?”
They grew up with the flavors they now serve in their shop. The menu offers “things that we would want for ourselves,” Raven said.
They source many of their ingredients locally, something they value as former farmers market vendors. They get milk from Hansen’s Dairy in the Cedar Valley, honey from Spring Valley Farms in Perry, flour milled in Panora and coffee beans roasted in Carroll. “We try to keep things really intentional,” Zeph said. “Everything is house-made, where possible.”
New fans, big plans
“The East Village and the other businesses here have really embraced us with open arms,” Zeph said. What was once a collective of seven siblings has grown to encompass the wider community.
“People have brought us trinkets and things from the Philippines. It’s very touching,” Raven said. The gifts are on display right up front, next to bags of coffee beans and family photos.
Customers are even coming from out of state because they saw it online or heard it about through word of mouth. “It’s so nice because it’s like, yes, we are creating this community,” said Raven.
Raven and Zeph also said having some of their siblings in New York could lead to expansion there, too. They said that the city’s large Filipino community and coffee culture make it a great opportunity. The family also hopes to open more locations around Iowa, to introduce Filipino flavors to more communities.
“I always say it’s our ‘first’ coffee shop,” Raven said, “because I believe there will be more.”
Flavors you might not find at Starbucks
Champorado: A chocolate-and-condensed-milk latte inspired by the chocolate rice porridge the Collective siblings grew up eating for breakfasts and snacks.
Turon: A sweet latte inspired by a Filipino snack of fried bananas and caramelized sugar.
Ube: Bright purple and subtly sweet, this purple yam makes a colorful latte.
Pandan: A tropical palm-like leaf with a sweet, nutty flavor, used here in cold foam and as a topping for vanilla lattes.
Matcha: The familiar green tea gets a Filipino twist when mixed with milk.
Hojicha: Japanese green tea that’s been roasted, rather than steamed or ground like matcha, to bring out a smokier flavor.
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