It’s rainy. It’s cold, and the traffic on the western half of Bee Cave Road is enough to make a saint lose faith in the holiday spirit. But inside Lola Savannah’s coffee shop the heady smell of fresh coffee, the warm lighting and the sound of what seems like familiar conversation draw a steady stream of people looking for a great morning cup and the courage to march on into a too-early morning.

There is music playing. It’s good. It’s current, and it doesn’t demand too much attention. There are familiar faces, some nods and smiles. Lola’s is both a place to meet and talk peacefully and a place to be left alone.

Behind the counter, three baristas work quickly in clouds of steam, pouring swirling cups of warm brew. At the center of the trio is Christopher Juarez. He and his two barista cohorts, Wyatt Ellis and Mark Kong, have been greeting regulars at Lola Savannah’s since the place opened a year and a half ago. These men aren’t ordinary baristas, they are latte artists.

“Most baristas are very artistic people and very social,” Juarez said, taking a break to walk a steaming cup of mocha latte with a tulip design over to a woman on a leather couch. “I am a musician and a songwriter. Wyatt is a musician. Mark paints and draws. We like to be able to use our hands, to create something.”

Juarez comes from a long history of coffee making, as long a history as a man in his 20s can own. He was working at a tea house when he saw an ad in the paper seeking a barista who liked to do latte art. He got the job immediately when he showed Lola’s general manager Katy Bounds a photo of an elephant he had poured in steamed milk on top of a cup of latte.

“Other coffee shops didn’t like me taking the time to create art on the coffee, but here it’s part of what we do; it is something we do just for that particular person, just for him or just for her,” he said. “Get a good cup of coffee. Take your time. You deserve that.”

Juarez said that latte art is becoming quite the new thing in Austin. There are two ways you can create latte art – by pouring the creation or by etching it into the foam.

“Pouring it is much more technical,” Juarez said. “You only have one chance. Everything has to be considered, like the consistency of the milk. The foam has to be very velvety, and it has to be hot. Espresso has to have a lot of cream in it.”

Juarez gets up at around 4 a.m. every morning, but you wouldn’t know it from the interest he takes in his customers and energy he generates. His curly hair bounces a little when he walks, and his smile is inescapably contagious. It’s a rare customer that doesn’t smile back at him over steamed milk.

“I’m calm because I get to give people something good, I guess,” he said. “It’s the first thing of their day. Something that is going to make that day better, change it for them. So I pay attention to the detail.”

Juarez, Ellis and Kong are all latte pour artists.

“I like to just let it flow, be more Tao about it,” Ellis said. “A lot of times when I hand the coffee to people, they don’t want to drink it. I tell them that they have to. That’s why it’s there.”

Kong, a graphic design student at Austin Community College likes the temporary aspect of latte art. Somewhat shy, he said he feeds off Juarez’s more gregarious personality. That’s fine with Juarez; he has plenty of gregariousness to go around.

“I like that this is more than a coffee shop; it’s part of people’s routine,” Juarez said. “I get to meet people I would probably never meet if I didn’t have this job. It’s a great social experiment.”

Tom Goebel has been coming to Lola’s for coffee since the beginning. A real estate investor, he’s there this particular morning to share a cup or two with his friend, Cole Tipton. Goebel lives close by, and he is successful enough to make his life pretty flexible.

“I come here to figure out what exercise I’m going to do and where I’m going to eat,” he joked.

Local builder Randy Myers is there with his son to grab a cup to go. Rick Rojo and Stefani Zellmer have stationed themselves at the bar with their laptops. Rojo lives nearby and comes in to get the workday rolling. Zellmer has an office down the street, but comes in for a change of pace.

“You’ve got good energy, good music, great coffee and a television on the wall to keep you up to date with the news,” she said.

Back at the counter, Juarez is putting the finishing touches of a swirl pattern atop a cup of something that smells like chocolate nirvana. Cup in hand, he heads over to his customer and watches a smile light up yet another face.

“The art form is part of the whole experience,” he said. “Once you take that out of it, you’re just left with a cup of coffee.”