Case Study Coffee Lounge in Phoenix hosts weeknight dance party

It’s Tuesday night and you can hear the gentle thumping of bass coming from the corner of a 16th Street building. Outside, a bouncer is letting a sizable line of people through. The parking lot is packed full, and the streets are lined with cars for blocks. The top of the building dons the place’s name: Case Study Coffee Lounge.

Inside, people are dancing, plastic cans fill their hands; may be a matcha, could be an espresso martini. At any given time, you might catch folks singing a hit track from the 2000s, grooving to Jersey music or digging on some reggaeton.

This lively weekend party is not held at a bar or live music venue. It’s inside a coffee shop, among a nest of other restaurants, shops and residences for just two hours on Tuesday nights, from 7 to 9 p.m. 

Case Study Coffee Lounge has been hosting its Tuesday DJ-night party, Case & Friends, for over a year, since August 2024, but this coffee-forward dance event gained momentum after it was opened to the public at the beginning of the year. 

The event first started to promote the work of one co-owner, Rene Arada, known at the decks as Clavo, when he began livestreaming his sets as a fun way to promote the coffee shop. Co-owner and DJ Joseph “Joey” Torres and DJ Tranzo were also part of the initial livestreams.

Soon, more and more DJs and musicians started to join the coffee shop party, including DJ Hiits Danny and keys player Joshie Allen.

William Douglas, co-owner of Case Study Coffee Lounge.

“DJ friends and creatives started to ask, ‘Hey, can I come?’” Joseph Torres said.  “And just friends started (to) bring their friends. More and more people wanted to show up. And there was just always good feedback from (all) of the creatives.”

At the start of 2025, the coffee shop made it official: the weekday music event would officially be open to the public. 

For the first few events, attendance was intimate, according to Torres. The first event saw around twelve unique attendees with the next few attracting around thirty. Determined to grow Case & Friends to another level, Torres and Arada began to invest more in the event.

“We would always say, ‘I’m not sure what we’re building, but we’re building something,” Torres said. “Clavo and I essentially doubled down.”

While there was and still is no cost for attendance, Arada and Torres began spending money out of their own pockets to cover the cost of hiring DJs for initial events, including their travel and hosting. Some past performers include DJ Flow, Olea and Steve Dub. 

“Majority of the time, we would bring out DJs who would play rare records, vinyl only. And so we did that a few times.” Torres said. “And there’s just been a lot of love and a lot of support for us bringing out, you know, these out-of-town DJs that you can’t normally see in your city.” 

The music at a Case & Friends event is never the same, with each night’s sound and vibe directly curated by the DJ lineup themselves, from trap to Afrobeats to house to R&B classics.

“What we tell the DJs is: ‘Hey. We have an open-minded crowd. This is for you to come and have fun (and) be creative. We’re not here to get in the way.” Torres said. 

Around May is when the event started to take off on social media when Torres’ girlfriend made a video for their TikTok account that saw over 60,000 views. That soon translated into real-life interest for the party as attendance shot into the hundreds. 

Joseph Torres, co-owner of Case Study Coffee Lounge.

“It’s fun, it’s special, there’s a lot of authenticity behind it,” Torres said. “Because this isn’t a money grab for us. While we are business owners, we’re still throwing free shows and free events.”

Without ticket sales, the primary way Case Study makes its money back through the sale of drinks. At the front of the shop, the baristas are making coffee, non-coffee, and even alcoholic beverages. Most notable are its canned matcha and espresso martinis, a newer addition to the shop. The shop also offers beer, hard seltzers, lattes, and sparkling and still water for its after-hours events. 

The drinks are only a small part of the vibe. The intimate atmosphere and danceable and often familiar favorites makes this space a perfect place to both connect with friends and meet other creatives. Inside an average Case & Friends party, it’s all smiles, laughters, and people dancing with friends on the floor. 

“I’ve met some amazing people, I know we’ve all met some amazing people,” Torres said. “There’ve been some amazing friendships and working relationships that have come out of Tuesday. I’ve called it a creative hub at times.”

With Joey also running his own boutique record label, Feel Good Jawns, focused on amplifying and creating collaborations between local artists, Case Study Coffee Lounge is interested in pushing the boundaries of what Case & Friends could be, exploring other live music and even other live acts beyond and including DJs in the future. Joey also hopes the coffee shop can vend at other events, including local music festivals like M3F.

“We’re definitely not trying to pigeonhole Case & Friends,” Joey said. “We want to keep it growing. We love pushing the boundaries. And it’s about creating the change that you want to see in your city.”