Pop-up Brandberry Cafe begins its seven-day run in downtown Rockford

October 16, 2025|By Kevin Haas|In Things to Do, News, 815 News, Rock River Current, Rockford, Trending, Business, Business/development, Eat & Drink

Nickolas Parra of Cowcitas hands a customer a drink on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, at Brandberry Cafe, a seven-day pop-up at 206 N. Main St. in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A pop-up cafe centered on creative coffee drinks and special events kicked off its seven-day run Thursday in downtown.

Brandberry Cafe is a one-week experience created by Evangelina Jimenez, the entrepreneur behind the annual Female Energy Festival in Rockford. It takes over VPW Studios, 206 N. Main St., through Oct. 23. You may recognize that space as the previous home of a different cafe, the original Rockford Roasting Co. location.

“People are starting to notice the potential we have here in the 13th Ward from the river all the way west,” said Alderman Tamir Bell, who celebrated a ribbon-cutting with the cafe on Thursday. “Our business owners are looking at new ways and innovative ways to collaborate and to create a community and an environment that is an experience we haven’t had before.”

Jimenez said the goal is to build connections, spark creativity and create a sense of community as people stop in for drinks or a weekday workspace. The vibe will change daily with yoga, mixers, weekend events with DJs, and other activities.

Drinks are being served up for six of the days by Cowcitas, a locally owned business that specializes in coffee, tea and handmade bakery items. On Saturday, Abuelo’s Coffee Co. and The Boss Lady Cafe are featured for a special Cafeton Day Party.

The pop-up cafe also doubles as the official launch of Jimenez’s new business Brandberry, a creative studio that helps small businesses build their brands online and improve their social media presence.

“You want to create experiences for your clients from the very beginning,” Jimenez said of the pop-up cafe. “It makes sure that people know there’s community support behind bringing ideas to life in Rockford.”

Jimenez has curated the Female Energy Festival for eight years in Rockford. It draws hundreds of attendees and showcases a multitude of women-owned brands and businesses. Pop-up events through Brandberry can be an extension of that, she said.

“There’s more than 200 applications for Female Energy every year,” she said. “If we had even just 10 people putting one event on every year, that’s something going on almost every month.”

Denise and Nickolas Parra, the husband-and-wife team behind Cowcitas, created special drinks for the pop-up cafe. That includes the Brandberry, an iced matcha with a blend of fresh berries, and Indigo Blue, which is named for another of Jimenez’s businesses: Indigo Beauty Boutique. The Indigo drink is a blueberry latte created with house-made blueberry syrup. It can be served hot or cold.

“We always try to make new drinks that are refreshing, but also something that people haven’t tried,” Nickolas Parra said.

Evangelina Jimenez waves to a passerby on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, as they prepare to the cut the ribbon Brandberry Cafe in downtown Rockford. From left to right are her father Michael Jimenez, Evangelina Jimenez, Denise Parra, Nickolas Parra, Ald. Tamir Bell, Emi Jimenez and Sicilia Jimenez. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

Cowcitas started as a home-based cottage food bakery in 2023. It added coffee to its array of baked goods about a year later. You might recognize it for its cow-patterned mobile trailer around town.

“We’re all about community. We definitely want to uplift others,” Denise Parra said. “This started from home, basically, so anybody that has a dream, just go for it.”

The Brandberry is a special Cowcitas drink create for a seven-day pop-up cafe that opened Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, in downtown Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

The pop-up cafe is underway about two months before Jimenez is due to give birth to her second child. She said it serves as an introduction to the type of experiences Brandberry hopes to create in the future.

“The goal is to encourage people to do something similar. Hopefully they will use me as their service, but either way it’s something to build community around,” she said. “Hopefully we leave them with a memory that will inspire them.”

Brandberry Cafe | 7-day pop-up

When: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16 to Thursday, Oct. 23 with additional hours during special events

Where: 206 N. Main St., Rockford

Follow: Facebook event page HERE

Events

Drake Night: 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17, with DJ Sage.FM spinning Drake’s hits ($5 entry)

Cafeton Day Party: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18 with two DJ sets, Puerto Rican cuisine from The Boss Lady Cafe, and a matcha and coffee bar by Abuelo’s Coffee Co.