Jorge Lucero, Jr. is the best dang barista in Durango. He slings drinks at the Steaming Bean, a cozy coffee shop cloaked in warm wood under the Irish Embassy Pub. Lucero is a striking figure behind the counter and a man whose smile can shift the mood of a room.
DGO spoke to him about his lovely, loud style.
“I love this shirt. It’s paisley, it’s floral, it’s kind of everything you need. It is a perfect shirt and I found it at the thrift store. That’s where you find the cool, old man shirts that everyone throws away. I feel like that’s my thing, old-man style.
I also have a lot of African shirts, too, that I got in Uganda that I had made for me. I flunked out of my first year at the Fort and had nothing to do. My friend was going to Uganda and I had a place to stay and had the money to do it, so I jumped into it and ended up going there for a bit.
The pendant, I got this in California at a rock shop I ended up at. We had just spread my grandma’s ashes at my uncle’s grave site at the veteran’s memorial. I got this as a memory of doing that but a happy memory because opal is my favorite and my grandma was super into stones.
(I got it) earlier this year. It is still my everyday, I’m-not-taking-it-off thing. I’ve taken it off once and that as to clean it after I accidentally took it into hot springs and it was tarnished.
I think (style) is a big part of my identity. I’ve always dressed differently, my whole life, I feel like. I was the one kid who would go dressed up to school in a suit just because. I like to peacock a bit. It’s nice. You look good, you feel good.”
Interview edited and condensed for clarity. Got rad style or know someone who always looks fab? Send DGO a heads up on who to interview next at [email protected]Patty Templeton