Matilda's

Some of you have been getting coffee from a little red 1970 Chevy P10 truck around Phoenix for eight years. The truck is named Matilda and now this truck has a house. Matilda's All Day Cafe opened in February in a restored 1914 bungalow on 6th Avenue in the Roosevelt Historic District, the old Garden Bar building, and the team behind the First Place Coffee truck poured everything they built on the road straight into it. The truck itself is parked out front.

Devon McConville runs the show. She left a finance career in 2015 to pull shots at Royal Coffee Bar, launched the truck in 2018 with her partner Terrence Murtagh, and spent eight years building one of the most loyal followings in the Valley, one parking lot line at a time. Chef Matt Celaya, of the Mas Amable wood fired pop-up, runs the kitchen, so the food is serious too. The Phoenix New Times calls it part cafe, part restaurant, part bar and the crowds agree. Lines form before opening and the front lawn comes with blankets.

The Vibe: A craftsman bungalow done up like a vintage brasserie, oxblood tile coffee bar, curated nooks, a shaded back patio and a front garden where people genuinely linger. This is a slow down place, not a grab and go.

The Coffee Program: The First Place drink roster, served all day now. Espresso is all doubles, pulled on a La Marzocco. The signature drinks are the reason people came to the truck and they came along: the Honeycomb with raw honey, vanilla bean and cinnamon, the Diablo with chocolate and chile de arbol, the lavender L.E.O. Seasonal menus rotate through genuinely weird and good territory (tahini fig, brown butter rosemary butterscotch, cafe de olla). House syrups and real ingredients, Califia oat and almond milk, no pump syrup in sight. Batch and flash brew coffee are listed as rotating. The team has said they plan to pilot their own roasting here, but no evidence they are roasting yet, so treat the beans as a question, not an answer.

The Baking: Pastries from The Dinersaur and Chaconne Patisserie plus sourced local viennoiserie. The affogato pairs Gilbert's Cream of the Crop ice cream with a First Place shot.

The full in person review is still coming. On the visit we will confirm the machine model, whether the roasting pilot has actually started, who roasts their beans right now and the batch brew rotation.