Situated along Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock, a coffee shop has become the spot to “find” local, artisanal roasts and a sense of community.
Stop by Found Coffee and you’ll see customers pounding away on their laptops or engaged in conversations, regulars picking up their usual orders, and newcomers stumbling in by chance. With minimalist, airy decor — expansive windows, white walls and wooden tables — mixed with vintage pieces (one wall houses a shelf of colorful rotary phones), the locale itself has a “lived in” feel that masks the fact that it’s barely been open for three months.
“It’s called Found because if you take a look at the decor, furniture, plates, they’re reclaimed, found or vintage. That’s the aesthetic that I love. I really want community to be found here, hence the community table,” Annie Choi, the brains behind Found told the Asian Journal.
Found gets coffee from several roasters in Southern California and offers high-quality, made-to-order drinks (no prepared mixes here, but do expect cutesy latte art) and pastries (from Sherman Oaks-based Créme Caramel) that cannot be found elsewhere in the neighborhood. Though the shop is located at a mini-mall away from the main thoroughfare of downtown Eagle Rock, a lot of its foot traffic has come from residences in the area. And not to mention the convenience factor — a parking lot with ample spaces and easy access to the 134 Freeway.
“I’m so thankful because we have been embraced by the community here in Eagle Rock. I [was] born and raised [in] LA so I have a wide network here, which helps. Business has been growing week by week,” Choi said. “There was a need for coffee. This stretch of Colorado Blvd. has been neglected by businesses and I’m ok with being away from the downtown area [of Eagle Rock]. We’re off the beaten path but it’s fun to have people discover you.”
Choi, the daughter of Korean small business owners, was working in post-production for shows like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and “Project Runway All Stars,” when she was at a crossroads in her career that led her to leave the entertainment industry and try out other fields, like event planning.
She reached out to Bobby Roshan, owner of Demitasse, a coffee shop with locations in Little Tokyo and Santa Monica. She was offered an internship that bloomed into a full-time barista position, and then manager. This all transpired in just four months of being at the shop.
“I learned about everything behind the coffee bar. The first day as an intern, I washed dishes for three hours. It’s not a glamorous thing to be an intern, but it’s not even glamorous to be a small business owner. But it’s really enriching. You slowly start off with baby steps. I took the initiative and asked for all three shifts [opening, mid and closing] because I wanted to know what all three were like and I wanted to learn the flow of each one. I started off with three shifts a week, unpaid. I was an intern for a month then I was asked to be a barista and then manager within four months of starting with the company,” she said.
But as she transitioned into her managerial role, Choi knew one thing: she couldn’t work for someone else.
She took an introduction to entrepreneurship class at Glendale Community College and heard about the Entrepreneurship Training Program (ETP) at Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), an eight-session training module for startup business owners who want to learn more about business operations and practices, from a friend who had graduated from the program.
The program, according to SIPA’s Business Development Specialist John Swing, offers one-on-one coaching, peer learning, focus groups and case studies. By the end of the sessions, entrepreneurs should have a ready business plan and access to resources to operate their own business.
During the summer 2014 program, which was twice a week for three hours a session, Choi refined her business plan and learned tips to finally hit the ground running to open up her own coffee shop.
“SIPA’s business counselor at the time, Anna Marie Cruz, pushed me to finish my business plan. That was the best benefit I could have gotten,” Choi said.
While at the program, she met Ron Fong, director of the API Small Business Program, who assisted her with her first loan, and raised $5,000 on Kiva Zip, a crowdfunding website for micro-entrepreneurs, in 16 hours. Her business won second place and $500 at the Asian Small Business Expo’s Citi Business Plan Competition in September.
She also got in touch with a generous investor who loaned her money and imparted in her an important business lesson to not give up equity. The funds helped her purchase coffee equipment, like two Espresso grinders and refrigerator, and secure her space in Eagle Rock. After signing the lease, it was a waiting game for permits, and Choi decided to rest up for a few months because once the shop opened, breaks would be rare.
“Personally, it’s been interesting because I’ve been only able take two full days off since January. I take afternoons off but I’m learning to not feel guilty about taking breaks. I can have a life outside of my small business and I think that’s important to communicate,” she said, while reveling in the independence to make certain decisions she couldn’t make while working for someone else.
Since opening in March, Found was recognized by the City of Los Angeles as the ”2015 Outstanding Small Business.” Choi has also been working with three Southern California-based roasters — Demitasse, Peri Coffee (also a graduate of SIPA’s ETP program) in Alta Dena, and Holy Schmidt Coffee in Lake Forest. She has five-full time staff, who she personally trained from the bottom up, starting with washing dishes and handling the cash register to pulling espresso shots and making the drinks.
“[I] keep it new and interesting especially for my regulars who come every day. But [I’d like to] also keep it competitive in terms of pricing, like I order to fit the need. That’s what’s nice about multi-roasting because if you go to a coffee like Starbucks, they have the same espresso blend for many years and people go back because it’s convenient. But what’s nice about smaller businesses is that you can call the shots and the customers [might] get bored with the same coffee,” she said.
With this promising start for Found, Choi is eyeing more opportunities to utilize the shop’s space and be more involved with the community, like hosting monthly events with food trucks and live music, and partnering with more local roasters.
“If I’m able to sustain another local small business via my business, that’s really cool,” she said.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek May 27 – June 3, 2015 Mag pg.3)
