Sogo Beans and Boards is a family affair in Golden

A love of coffee might be one of the only passions you’d expect a chemist, a counselor, and a skate influencer to have in common. But the team behind South Golden’s Sogo Beans and Boards happens to share a last name, a home, and a Koi fish named Dave as well. 

The South Golden coffee house and skate shop is run by the Smith family: Kevyn, Patty, and their son Ely. While only in its second year of operation, this mother-father-son passion project has been turning heads with its creative beverage lineup and commitment to making almost all their ingredients in-house. 

But it all started with a skate shop. 

Kevyn and Patty moved to Colorado with their son Ely in 2008. While originally landing in north Denver, their son Ely’s growing passion for skateboarding brought them to Golden to give him more room to move. Over time, videos of his tricks and stunts helped build his Instagram and TikTok account @turtleshorts to over 13,000 followers. 

He soon began designing skate apparel as well, and later formed his own company, Psycho Skateboards. Watching their son confidently launch his own business gave Kevyn and Patty the nerve to make the entrepreneurial leap as well. 

Kevyn, who was working in the renewable energy sector, merged his master’s degree in chemistry and passion for cooking and baking at home with Patty’s dream of opening a coffee shop, and set out to make it a reality. After finding the perfect spot on South Golden Road two years ago — a former motorcycle garage adjacent to a small house — they threw all their savings in, ditched their 9-to-5 gigs, and set about remaking the space into the coffee shop of Patty’s dreams and a home for Ely’s skate shop. 

Kevyn personally bakes their line of pastries in-house in the same kitchen that doubles as his syrup lab. He’s put his background in chemistry and renewable water systems to work designing the nine-stage filtration system that supplies water for all the shop’s beverage and baking needs, with the discarded water going to the lawn in Sogo’s backyard oasis.

Sogo’s beverage lineup is as inventive as the people behind it, and most cups come adorned with treats that complement the flavor profile of the creation inside. Kevyn distills their flavored syrup from simple, natural ingredients. His banana syrup for the banana pudding latte contains only bananas, water, cane sugar, and a pinch of salt. The cookie dough latte is also flavored with one of his homemade syrups and comes with a cookie rim affixed with cookie butter. 

While many of their signature drinks are dessert-inspired, they aren’t excessively sweet. The syrups complement the coffee rather than overpowering it, and that is by design. Don’t be fooled by the strawberry beetroot cream cloud at the top of your blush sky espresso. These are coffee drinks for people who like coffee. 

For those who prefer something a little less complex, a full menu of coffee house classics is available. Non-coffee drinkers have no shortage of inventive teas and lemonades to choose from. All of Sogo’s matcha concoctions are made with ceremonial-grade matcha. The layered cocowave matcha hits the spot on a warm day with its base of coconut water, a second layer of green matcha, a splash of lemonade, and a blue matcha cloud topper.

The indoor seating area is a bright, plant-filled living room just behind Ely’s skate shop. The backyard garden area is dog-friendly, and will soon be the home of an evening cocktail hour the Smiths plan to launch as soon as the weather cools a bit. 

Dave the Koi fish lives in the garden area in a pond decorated with lilies cultivated for weather-heartiness by the good people of the Denver Botanic Gardens. Once accompanied by a family of Koi, he is now the lone survivor of a recent raccoon raid. 

Some smaller goldfish have been added to keep him company. If you bring your pup to Sogo, you might be mindful of whether your dog might investigate a fish pond when choosing a seat — looking at you, labradors. Dave’s been through so much already.

Outside of Sogo, the Smiths run a licensed therapeutic home, taking in teens and pre-teens and giving them the opportunity to build confidence through small tasks around the shop.

Sogo Beans and Boards is a great place to stop to fuel up for your day, but it’s also an example of what can happen when you take a chance on straying from the beaten path to build the life you want. You don’t even have to leave your former self behind to do it.