‘For the community’: Cafe Cà Phê to open coffee shop in Kansas City’s Columbus Park
Cafe Cà Phê, a Vietnamese mobile coffee truck that launched in Kansas City last year, is opening a brick and mortar location this winter.
Jackie Nguyen, Cafe Cà Phê’s owner, announced on Instagram last week that the coffee shop — known for it’s Hella Good Latte, made with ube, a purple sweet potato — is opening a permanent location in Columbus Park.
Nguyen, a first generation Vietnamese American and daughter of a Vietnam War refugee, has worked with her small team to make a name for themselves since opening in October 2020 by focusing on allyship and community to fight racism with the goal of making Kansas City a home for all.
As the business grows, the cafe will soon occupy what’s currently an empty building at 916 East 5th Street, just down the street from Vietnam Cafe and right next door to Swoon Cookie Crafters.
“We have chosen Columbus Park because, first of all, Columbus Park is a huge neighborhood for Vietnamese refugees and the Vietnamese community,” Nguyen said during the announcement, adding that their goal is to create a safe space for Asian people and for marginalized people. “We want to bring more culture to what already exists in Columbus Park.”
Nguyen said they also chose the neighborhood because there’s no stand-alone coffee shop already there.
“We’re not trying to invade a space, we’re trying to create a home and emphasize the fact that the neighborhood needs a coffee shop, and that we want to be that person,” she said, encouraging feedback from those who live in the Columbus Park neighborhood.
They hope to be in the new location by the winter, though an exact opening date is not yet set.
Fundraising for the new coffee shop
Nguyen created a GoFundMe page to help raise money to buildout the store. As of Monday afternoon, they’d raised about $3,300. Their goal is set at $88,000.
“We are determined to get this thing fully funded by the community because it’s going to be for the community,” Nguyen said.
Some people have asked why she doesn’t get a loan to cover all the costs of the new building. Nguyen said it’s more complicated than that.
“In order for me, as a first-generation woman of color, to actually successfully run a business, I do not want to start my business off in debt,” she said, adding that so often, business owners invest so much of their time trying to pay off the debt that they don’t have time to build on what they’ve created.
And building on to her business is crucial to Nguyen’s vision.
She’s trying to create generational wealth, she said, while also building a platform where she can show other Asian and minority business owners that there are other ways to grow a business. She said she’s trying to break the mold and show that sometimes you can ask the community for help.
“I know it’s such a different, backwards business model from what a lot of people usually do, but I want to really make strides. I want to really make change,” she said. “And in order for us to really truly do that, Cafe Cà Phê cannot be in debt.”
A vision for the future
Nguyen said the brick and mortar is just the beginning.
Since opening the coffee truck last fall, her goal has been to bring more visibility to the AAPI community by teaching about the Asian narrative, Vietnamese culture and the Asian American experience through her business. She chose Kansas City as her new home after touring with the Broadway musical “Miss Saigon” because she noticed a lack of attention being paid to Asian Americans.
Last spring, Nguyen told The Star that she has dreams down the road of opening Cafe Cà Phês in other cities in the Midwest that lack representation; of creating a Little Asia in Kansas City with a museum, events and even classes on Asian culture. Maybe she’d teach how to make Vietnamese coffee.
Regardless of what’s next, her vision for the new store remains the same. In Vietnam, coffee shops are made to feel like second homes, where visitors are treated more like family or friends than customers, Nguyen said. It’s a vision she has for the Columbus Park space.
Nguyen said the brick and mortar will also include a space for pop-ups so they can host and promote small businesses, a call-back to how Cafe Cà Phê got its start.
Until the new building opens, Cafe Cà Phê’s coffee truck will remain parked outside Sequence Climb, at 1710 Washington Street, where they serve coffee from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, while also making appearances at pop-ups around the metro. Updates can be found on their Instagram page.
On Wednesday, as part of National Coffee Day, Cafe Cà Phê is giving away free open sesame lattes from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside Sequence Climb.
