A nice man named Felipe interrupted while I was interviewing Bill Sandweg, the owner of Copper Star Coffee on Seventh Avenue. Felipe heard that Sandweg was running for a seat on the Maricopa Community College District 3 governing board, and wanted to talk about his campaign goals.
While Sandweg stumped for how a good junior college system grows jobs for the community, I checked out the crowd hanging out on Copper Star’s patio. A lot of them were regulars; the same people I see whenever I visit this bustling café in Midtown’s Melrose District. Over by the door was the usual gaggle of plaid-skirted Xavier schoolgirls, sipping lattes and rolling their eyes. In the corner sat Bad Wig Guy, slowly stirring a cold brew. Across from him were the two guys who always show up with their pet parakeet in tow.
Sandweg and I had been talking about how he’d come to open Copper Star in an old, run-down gas station 20 years ago and, once Felipe wandered away, we got back to it.
“I already had a kitschy gas station theme in mind before we found this place,” Sandweg said. “I wanted to open a café and when I found this one, there was an old auto repair rack up against one wall and a pile of broken transmissions rusting away in one corner.”
Sandweg and his wife Ginger abandoned the restaurant idea in favor of a coffee house with a great vibe, strong brew and a killer bagel.
“We switched to coffee because we lived in the neighborhood, and the closest coffee shop was this place where the coffee was pretty good,” he recalled. “But we always felt judged when we’d go in there, because we weren’t dressed cool or whatever.”
Sandweg told me he loves it when customers tell him Copper Star reminds them of their favorite coffee houses in Los Angeles. “Because,” he said, “Copper Star has its roots in the cafés I was bumming around in West L.A. in the ’90s.”
Sandweg, born and raised in Phoenix, brought nearly 40 years of food-service work to his gig as local coffee house owner. Having managed various chain restaurants taught him what not to do once he landed his own place.
“I had the name Copper Star [in mind] since I was a teenager,” he told me. “It’s a reference to the star in the middle of our state flag. And I had this vision of a place with sunlight streaming through a lot of windows and maybe a portrait of Barry Goldwater on the wall. But I also knew that the key would be to hire the right people, get out of their way and let them do the job.”
It’s a management style that frees Sandweg up to do things he loves, like making bagels. “We lost our bagel guy a few years ago, and I finally found a really good bagel-maker, but he wouldn’t deliver. Finally, I just said, ‘I’ve been making dough all my life, I’ll do it myself.’”
When I pointed out that his bagels are so popular I worry he’ll run out before I can get one, he shrugged and changed the subject.
“I can talk about how Copper Star is a community or a family or say something about the importance of baking everything in house,” he said. “But when you get down to it, a good coffee house should be about great coffee and maybe a really good scone. What I’m hoping is that everyone who comes here finds a little bit of whatever else they’re looking for, as well.”
– Robrt L. Pela
Read It
Murder at the Mai Tai Bar
You’d be forgiven for mistaking the title of this 2026 book as a cleverly named cocktail, but Murder at the Mai Tai Bar is actually a sharp-witted crime thriller from Valley PR pro turned novelist Dawson Fearnow. The story follows private investigator Eva Pierce to Hawaii, where she goes undercover as a travel influencer to tail her billionaire target. Darkly humorous high jinks ensue when said target turns up dead, a legion of livestream social media followers complicate the investigation and Eva finds herself caught between two charming men: one who might be her prime suspect, the other, a detective who thinks she might be his prime suspect. This page-turner goes down easy but has lots of bite. Maybe a hip new libation after all? $17.99, maitaimurder.com
– Jessica Dunham
