5 POC-Owned Coffee Shops in Austin | Eats and Vibes
There are plenty of coffee shops in Austin, Texas, but finding one with POC owners was especially difficult. After hours of searching, I found a few coffee shops with POC owners and want to share the experience and give support.
I'm not sure how I roped Mehul into this project, but he graciously accepted. I'm pretty sure he regretted it after I told him the times that we would have to arrive at the coffee shops, which was as early as possible to avoid the crowd, the lines, and obtain footage.
Mehul used to own a coffee shop back in the day, so I thought he would have an interesting perspective on the coffee shops I wanted to visit. The first time I visited coffee shops for review and my channel was in Portland with my sister. I felt like more than one point of view was needed for this project. Also, my sister actually likes to drink coffee. Although I enjoy a good Cup of Jo, I probably couldn't tell the difference between a good cup of coffee and a bad cup of coffee, or light roast versus dark roast. I enjoy cream in my coffee and the mostly bitter taste, with ice on a hot day, but a professional coffee taster, I am not.
These are not going to be in any particular order, but one of the places that we visited was Sa’Ten Coffee. This coffee shop is Japanese-owned with a Japanese vibe. It has two locations in Austin. One of which has seating on tatami mats. Unfortunately, I didn't know that I had chosen the non-tatami mat coffee shop to visit. The one that I had chosen was the closest of the two to me, at the time. The baristas were very hesitant when I asked permission to take footage of the coffee shop. A few of the previous times that I had asked for permission, the owner was close by. The owner was not close by that day, so they probably felt uncomfortable when I asked. I really appreciated the decorative plants chosen, they seemed on theme. There was also this cool old-fashioned television set that was turned into an aquarium. The coffee shop had a garage door which I really liked also; it would have been a great experience had the weather been a little bit cooler that day. But we visited all of these coffee shops in May and June, when the weather was rainy, muggy, or on fire.
We also visited Cafe Nenai, which was an interesting experience on its own. It's owned by a mother – daughter duo, the mother being from Paraguay. Our first attempt at visiting Cafe Nenai, we were shut down. We arrived promptly as it opened, only to find out that they were not seating indoors. It was online orders only, and the orders would be placed on a small table just outside the doors. This is not the type of experience I was looking for, even though it's understanding in covid times. The following week, I followed up by calling beforehand. I'm guessing one of the owners, probably the mother, answered the phone. She seemed in a rush, or possibly not as comfortable speaking English. In retrospect, I should have started with Spanish even though I’m not fluent. Our second attempt to visit the actual coffee shop, the sign was still up, indicating that they were taking online orders only. There was a cute little table and a few chairs outside of the cafe. Mehul and I sat down and ordered from our phones. When the lady came out to drop our orders on the little table just outside the door, I tried my best, in Spanish, to request taking a few minutes inside the store so that I could capture what a delight the coffee shop was, to capture the decor and the essence and the vibe. She was more welcoming that time. I stepped inside, after I put my mask on and was surprised how much I loved it. I loved the hand-painted gold map of South America. I loved the accent chairs available at the bar, facing out the window. I loved the framed news articles and framed woman empowering artwork. There, we ate a delicious breakfast and an amazing orange cake. 10/10, would go again.
Next we have Revival Coffee, owned by a Latina who also happens to own Taquero Mucho. This is a difficult one. As I said previously, Mehul and I visited these coffee shops very early in the morning. We were not ready to listen to dance music at 9 a.m., nor see the bright neon signs and light fixtures. I was also disappointed when I couldn't get the horchata drink; it looked like the best thing on their menu, so of course it was sold out. I'd like to try again though, maybe sometime in the afternoon this time. I think that the outdoor patio with the garden will be a much better option for me in the early morning next time. Unfortunately, it was basically mid-summer and there was no way that I was going to sit outside, even at 9 a.m.
Monkey Nest Coffee was such a cute place. There are monkeys decorated all over the cafe; there were stuffed animals, there were statues, and they were on posters and pictures. The Iranian owner was behind the bar, with the baristas. When I asked one of the baristas if I could take some video footage of the coffee shop, the owner had to be asked. He was literally the best. He said as long as it's not bothering any of the customers, then I was free to go. He came by as Mehul and I enjoyed our breakfast to make sure that everything was going smoothly. When we were getting ready to go, I made an order for Austin to take home to him, and the owner once again brought me to the side to have a little conversation. He was very much interested in this video. He was so kind, and even did a pointing pose in one of the video shots that I took. Because I was very much enjoying his company, I completely forgot that I ordered something for Austin and took off. I wasn’t able to turn around as I needed to get back home immediately for work.
The last place that we visited was Vietnamese-owned Cafe Creme. It was an ordeal (for me) just getting to the parking lot. There was construction all over that road. I couldn't even actually get to the right parking lot, I got to an adjacent one, but that was good enough for me. I wasn't about to go back out into the construction area to figure my way around to get to the right parking lot. Mehul found it without issue though, so there’s hope yet! The facade of this coffee shop looked like a chain, or something corporate, and boring looking. I'm not really sure what we were expecting inside. But one look changed my mind completely. It was not boring, it was lively. The art on the walls was from several local artists. They sold some of the art as well, with funky-looking sunglasses for sale too. They had a book exchange, which had me from the word “book” because I love reading. And their food was incredible. They had both savory and sweet crepes. I feel like I should have gotten the Nutella crepe, but I'll save that for next time. Instead I got the banana and peanut butter crepe. I also got another savory crepe before that. It was expensive because I wanted to eat and drink everything, but well worth it.
I spent an unbelievably long amount of time actually doing the research to find these coffee shops with POC-owners. A lot of times the owner is listed as a group of people, some of which may or may not be POC. If some percentage of that group of owners is POC, they are allowed to market themselves as a POC-owned business. A lot of times this is done for woman-owned businesses, as well. But I was actually looking for a purely POC-owned business. I would recommend each and every one of these coffee shops, and I wish them the very best. Bon appetit!
“If you can't sit in a cafe quietly and be ignored, how can you observe human nature and write a story?“ - Evangeline Lilly
What’s your favourite local coffee shop?
