Exo Roast Co. Pours at a Sixth Avenue Warehouse and a Barrio Viejo Cafe

Jacob Mishalanie

Oct 7

10 min read

Row of whitewashed adobe buildings with blue trim along Convent Avenue in Tucson's Barrio Viejo

Photo: w_lemay, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Exo Roast Co. is really two locations living two completely different lives. There is the original warehouse cafe on Sixth Avenue, at 403 N 6th Ave, open seven am to five pm every single day, close enough to Fourth Avenue to belong to that same pocket of Tucson. And there is Cafe Crisol, at 196 W Simpson St in Barrio Viejo, which by evening becomes something else entirely, Bar Crisol, at the very same address.

That kind of day and night transformation at one address is not something every coffee business in Tucson can claim, and it is worth telling both halves of Exo's story on their own terms, the warehouse room in the blocks east of downtown, and the Barrio Viejo cafe that turns into a bar once the sun goes down. Tucson Foodie's Foodie 15 guide to downtown coffee lists the Simpson Street address, and My Coffee Explorer's 2026 guide to Tucson coffee shops names Exo as well.

The Sixth Avenue Warehouse

Exo's original room sits at 403 N 6th Ave, open seven am to five pm, every day of the week, according to the shop's own hours and location page. A warehouse address puts this room in the industrial feeling stretch of Tucson just east of Fourth Avenue, close enough to that strip's foot traffic while carrying its own rougher, older building character.

Being open every single day, with no day off built into the schedule, is a meaningful commitment for a Tucson coffee room. It means the warehouse is reliably there for a regular no matter which day of the week they happen to be free, from seven in the morning until five in the afternoon, the longest daily coffee window of Exo's two addresses.

Cafe Crisol by Day

Cafe Crisol, Exo's second room, pours in Barrio Viejo at 196 W Simpson St, open seven am to three pm, Tuesday through Sunday, according to the shop's own hours and location page. Barrio Viejo is one of Tucson's oldest, most historic neighborhoods, adobe buildings and narrow streets that carry a genuinely different feel from the warehouse blocks near Fourth Avenue.

A daytime cafe hour that runs from early morning through mid afternoon, six days a week rather than every day, suggests a cafe built around a specific rhythm, a morning and midday crowd in a historic neighborhood, rather than an all day destination. That distinction between the warehouse's every day schedule and Cafe Crisol's six day week is itself a small but telling piece of how differently these two locations are built to run.

Bar Crisol by Night

Once Cafe Crisol closes for the day, the very same address at 196 W Simpson St becomes Bar Crisol, open five pm to eleven pm, Wednesday through Saturday, according to the shop's own hours and location page. Turning one physical space into two distinct concepts, a coffee cafe by day and a bar by night, at the exact same door, is a genuinely creative way to get more use out of one Barrio Viejo location.

That transformation also means the same building serves two very different kinds of regulars across a single week. A morning coffee drinker stopping by Cafe Crisol before eleven in the morning may never overlap with an evening visitor arriving for Bar Crisol after five, and yet both are walking through the same door in the same historic Barrio Viejo building.

Two Rooms, Two Neighborhoods

The Sixth Avenue warehouse and the Barrio Viejo cafe are different Tucson neighborhoods, close enough to downtown to both feel central, but distinct in character. The warehouse sits closer to Fourth Avenue's mix of shops and murals, while Barrio Viejo carries the older, more residential, more historic feel of one of Tucson's original neighborhoods.

Running locations in both places gives Exo a foothold in two very different parts of the city's coffee geography at once, the Sixth Avenue crowd moving between Fourth Avenue and downtown, and the historic neighborhood crowd around Simpson Street, each with its own reasons to walk through Exo's doors.

Getting between the two is easy by Tucson standards. Both sit close to downtown and Congress Street, one to the northeast near the streetcar line and one to the south in Barrio Viejo, so a visitor staying downtown can reach either room without crossing the whole city. That closeness is part of why the two addresses read as one business, even while each room keeps its own name, its own hours and its own crowd.

One Name by Day, Another After Dark

The Simpson Street cafe carries its own name, Crisol, rather than a plain Exo label. Choosing a distinct name for the Barrio Viejo location, rather than simply calling it a second Exo cafe, treats that historic neighborhood location as its own identity rather than a satellite of the warehouse on Sixth Avenue.

The name then does double duty. Cafe Crisol is the daytime room, seven am to three pm Tuesday through Sunday, and Bar Crisol is the evening concept at the same address, five pm to eleven pm Wednesday through Saturday. One door, two names, two crowds, and a two hour gap in between when the room turns over from one life to the other.

The Seasonal Rhythm of a Historic Neighborhood

Cafe Crisol's own hours note a summer change: the room drops its Monday hours during June and July, and a summer schedule of seven am to three pm Tuesday through Sunday. It is a seasonal adjustment tied to summer in Tucson, when the desert heat changes foot traffic across the entire city, and a small but telling sign of a cafe paying attention to how its own corner of Barrio Viejo behaves through the year rather than running one fixed schedule regardless of season.

That kind of seasonal flexibility also reflects something true about running a coffee business in the Sonoran Desert generally. Tucson's summer heat reshapes how people move through the city, and a cafe willing to adjust its own hours in response, rather than forcing the same year round schedule onto a very different summer reality, tends to serve its neighborhood better because of it.

Barrio Viejo's Own Character

Barrio Viejo is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tucson, its adobe architecture and narrow streets predating much of the rest of the modern city around it. A coffee cafe that becomes a bar at the very same historic address gives visitors two entirely different ways to experience that same old neighborhood, a quiet morning coffee among Barrio Viejo's historic buildings, or an evening out once Bar Crisol opens its doors later in the week.

Few Tucson coffee businesses can claim a setting with this much built in historic character, and Exo's choice to run two distinct concepts out of the very same Barrio Viejo address makes the most of that setting rather than limiting the building to just one identity throughout the day. A drinker who only knows the warehouse on Sixth Avenue gets half of that picture; the Simpson Street location, morning or night, is the other half, and it is worth the short trip south.

Two Streets, Two Personalities

Step back and Exo reads as a business defined by exactly two streets, Sixth Avenue and Simpson Street, each carrying its own weight in the company's identity. Sixth Avenue gives the business its warehouse character, close enough to Fourth Avenue's foot traffic to feel like part of that same downtown adjacent energy. Simpson Street, deep in Barrio Viejo, gives the business its neighborhood cafe and evening bar identity, tucked into one of Tucson's oldest residential pockets.

Two streets, two personalities, one name over both. That is the real shape of Exo's presence in Tucson, a company that never tried to make its second room feel identical to its first, choosing instead to let each address become its own part of the city around it.

Neighbors on the Sixth Avenue Side

The warehouse room is not the only independent coffee stop in its pocket. Harley's Coffee Co. sits at 316 E 6th St Suite 150, a short walk away near Fourth Avenue, and Presta's 9th Street room is at 501 E 9th St, one block off Fourth Avenue in historic downtown Tucson. Three businesses, three addresses, all inside an easy walk of each other, each with its own reason to exist on its own block.

For a visitor on foot, that cluster turns the blocks between Fourth Avenue and Sixth Avenue into one of the easiest places in Tucson to spend a morning moving between cafes. For anyone describing Tucson coffee, it is a reminder that this pocket holds several separate stories, not one downtown blurb.

A Warehouse Setting

The warehouse setting at 403 N 6th Ave gives Exo's original location a texture few standard cafes can match, an older industrial building repurposed for coffee rather than a storefront built from scratch for retail alone. The Sixth Avenue blocks around it have been slowly filling with studios, small shops and cafes like this one, and the warehouse fits that mix naturally.

That kind of setting tends to appeal to a drinker who wants a neighborhood coffee stop with some character to it, a room with high ceilings and history in the walls rather than a polished box in a strip center, and it is open every day of the week to anyone who wants to find it.

Chains Nearby, Rooms Apart

Tucson's coffee map also carries plenty of drive through doors. Dutch Bros lists 16 Tucson locations on its own locator, and 7 Brew runs two Tucson stands, including one at 135 E Speedway Blvd north of downtown. Those stands are built for speed and sameness, the identical cup at every window.

Exo's two locations are built the other way, each shaped by its own block. The warehouse keeps long daily hours for the Sixth Avenue crowd, and Cafe Crisol on Simpson Street shifts from cafe to bar as Barrio Viejo moves from morning to night. For a drinker choosing between a window and a cafe with a sense of place, that is the difference that matters.

Finding Both Rooms

For anyone trying to find Exo, the two addresses matter. The Sixth Avenue warehouse, at 403 N 6th Ave, is open every day from seven am to five pm. Cafe Crisol, at 196 W Simpson St in Barrio Viejo, runs seven am to three pm Tuesday through Sunday, and the same address becomes Bar Crisol from five pm to eleven pm Wednesday through Saturday.

A business with this much hour by hour detail across two different locations deserves a page that lays all of it out clearly, warehouse hours, cafe hours and bar hours, rather than leaving a customer to guess which version of Exo they will find when they show up. If your Tucson coffee shop has more than one location or more than one identity worth explaining this clearly, reach Hillcane at hillcane.co/contact or call (256) 384-2449.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Exo's warehouse room?

Exo's original room is at 403 N 6th Ave, in the Sixth Avenue warehouse blocks just east of Fourth Avenue and downtown Tucson. The shop's own hours and location page lists it as open seven am to five pm every day of the week. Harley's Coffee Co. at 316 E 6th St and Presta's 9th Street room at 501 E 9th St are a short walk away.

Where is Cafe Crisol?

Cafe Crisol is at 196 W Simpson St in Barrio Viejo, one of Tucson's oldest neighborhoods, south of downtown. It opens seven am to three pm Tuesday through Sunday, and during June and July it drops its Monday hours for the summer. Tucson Foodie's Foodie 15 guide to downtown coffee lists the Simpson Street address among its picks.

What is Bar Crisol?

Bar Crisol is the evening concept at the same 196 W Simpson St address in Barrio Viejo, open five pm to eleven pm Wednesday through Saturday. Cafe Crisol serves the same room by day from seven am to three pm, so the door turns from a morning coffee room into an evening bar with a two hour gap in between.

Which neighborhood is Cafe Crisol in?

Barrio Viejo, one of Tucson's oldest neighborhoods, known for adobe row houses and narrow streets that predate much of the modern city. It sits just south of downtown and Congress Street, a different world from the Sixth Avenue warehouse blocks near Fourth Avenue where Exo's original room at 403 N 6th Ave keeps its daily seven to five schedule.

Is the warehouse room open every day of the week?

Yes. Exo's own hours and location page lists the Sixth Avenue warehouse room at 403 N 6th Ave as open seven am to five pm every day, with no day off. That makes it the longest daily coffee window of Exo's two addresses, since Cafe Crisol on Simpson Street runs seven am to three pm and only Tuesday through Sunday.

Does the same address serve both a cafe and a bar?

Yes. 196 W Simpson St operates as Cafe Crisol from seven am to three pm Tuesday through Sunday, then becomes Bar Crisol from five pm to eleven pm Wednesday through Saturday, according to Exo's own hours and location page. One Barrio Viejo building serves two different crowds in a single week, morning coffee regulars and an evening bar crowd.

How close is the warehouse room to Fourth Avenue?

Close enough to share its foot traffic. The room at 403 N 6th Ave sits in the warehouse blocks just east of the Fourth Avenue strip, the stretch of shops, bars and murals that runs into the streetcar line. Harley's Coffee Co. at 316 E 6th St Suite 150 and Presta's room at 501 E 9th St are in the same walkable pocket.

Are Cafe Crisol's hours the same all year?

Not quite. Cafe Crisol runs seven am to three pm Tuesday through Sunday, and its own hours note that it drops Monday hours during June and July, when Tucson's summer heat reshapes foot traffic across the city. The evening Bar Crisol schedule, five pm to eleven pm Wednesday through Saturday, runs at the same Simpson Street address.

Which guides name Exo?

Tucson Foodie's Foodie 15 guide to coffee shops in downtown Tucson lists Exo at 196 West Simpson Street, and My Coffee Explorer's 2026 guide to the best coffee shops in Tucson, updated in September 2026, names Exo among the city's cafes. Both guides reach readers well beyond Barrio Viejo and the Sixth Avenue warehouse blocks, including visitors planning a first trip.

How can Hillcane help a shop with more than one identity like Exo?

Hillcane builds pages that lay out each room's hours and identity, the warehouse at 403 N 6th Ave, the daytime cafe at 196 W Simpson St and the evening bar at that same address, so customers know exactly what to expect at each address and each time of day. Reach out at hillcane.co/contact or call (256) 384-2449.

Work with Hillcane

The same Barrio Viejo address pours coffee by day and turns into a bar once the sun goes down.

If your Tucson coffee shop runs more than one room or more than one identity, reach Hillcane at hillcane.co/contact or call (256) 384-2449.