Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Liz Tavarez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Liz, appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
Juan and I both came from very structured, corporate businesses, so we know all the ins and outs of being a cog in the machine. Working your way up to still feel like you are just a number in a big company wasn’t fulfilling for either of us. I need stability, so leaving that structure (and promise of getting paid!) was and still is scary for me at times. We’ve talked about the feeling that owning your own business and being your own boss is the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. At the end of the day, it all falls on your shoulders, and that can be difficult to carry. If people do not like what you’re doing, it feels very personal, because at the end of the day, it IS. It’s your ideas and dreams and plans. At the same time, when you succeed, or roll something new out that your customers love, or you walk into your building and you don’t see anyone that’s your friend or your mom, it still makes my eyes get a little watery. To conceptualize a dream and then put the pieces into place to make it become reality, and then on top of that, have people in the community resonate with what you’re doing, I don’t know that there’s any better feeling. High highs and low lows.
Liz, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We are Juan and Liz Tavarez, owners of The Coronado PHX and Dark Hall Coffee. Juan moved to AZ when he was 13 and Liz moved to AZ when she was 12. They met in the late 90’s while both playing in bands, and the rest is history.
The Coronado is a Southwest-inspired vegan restaurant, and Dark Hall is a 100% plant based coffee shop. The thing that we feel most sets us apart from other plant based/vegan eateries is that we don’t lean on being vegan to make us different, we just want to make the best food, coffee and pastries that we can, period.
Many times when trying vegan food or pastries, they can “taste vegan” and anyone who is not vegan is not going to want to eat that! We get it. Food should just be good, no matter what dietary category it’s falling into. If you are a vegan and your friends or family aren’t, it can be difficult to find somewhere to eat that everyone can enjoy. We hope to bridge that gap so that everyone can eat a meal together, have a wonderful time, and leave feeling full and happy.
We don’t use any mock meats or cheeses and we make everything from scratch in-house. We don’t have freezers, and we receive daily shipments of fresh produce which is then prepped in our kitchens to make the freshest, most flavorful food we can.
The Coronado has a full bar selling local wines, beers and craft cocktails and all of Dark Hall’s pastries are baked fresh daily, in-house.
We strive to be great at what we do, not just great for “vegan”.
We got into this business really on a whim, and have been at it since 2015. The Coronado started at a small bungalow on 7th Street, and then in 2018, we started Dark Hall to fill a void we saw in plant based coffee and pastry. We wanted to do something elevated and really push the envelope for the expectation of vegan food in Phoenix. In 2021, we moved The Coronado to its current location on 12th Street and then in 2022, we were lucky enough to be able to move Dark Hall right next door! At the beginning of 2023, we got the opportunity to purchase both of the buildings we currently operate in, and we took it. Not knowing if it was even possible, and understanding all of the risk associated with it, it was definitely a scary time, but something that we just had to push for. Becoming owners AND operators of the buildings made it so that we have a permanent spot and we aren’t going to have to move due to a rent increase. It gives some stability in our minds and helps us be able to plan long term.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
We had an amazing business partner who built the social media presence while she was with us, and then it was my job to take it over and not totally kill it, haha. There was a sharp learning curve and while I wanted it to be a seamless transition and keep the overall vibes the same, I wanted to make sure that it was genuine to who I was. The businesses do both have a “voice” and tone in the posting, but it’s never been easy for me to play a part that wasn’t true for me. I stressed about this for several months while also trying to make the posts look like they used to, but then came to the conclusion that all I can do is be myself. We don’t have a PR machine behind the scenes making things look good, we don’t always know the right things to say, and we do mess up. But what I’ve found is that being genuine, sharing the times when things are hard, asking for help when we need it, having a sense of humor (mine is pretty dark!), and just being real, really does help people connect to the brand. If people think it’s too real, or they don’t want to hear the reality going on behind the scenes, then they may unfollow us and that’s ok! Social media also isn’t real and no one should take it too seriously. Just get the word out there about what you do well, what you do different, and connect with people. That’s all you can do!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think the main thing that helped build our reputation was that we work with community groups in AZ and we speak out about issues that are important to us, when no one else was really doing that initially. It’s that thing where as a business, you’re expected to be a professional, not respond to negative things, basically “roll over”, and that just isn’t what we’ve ever done. We are humans! So we have feelings on stuff, and to be expected to present an unfeeling exterior just isn’t how we wanted to do things. We have gotten in trouble and gotten a lot of hate for it, but I do think that the people who like and support us, do it even more because we are willing to stick our necks out. When I say we’ve gotten hate, I mean death threats, being doxxed, groups picketing outside our restaurants – and those times are very scary. You sit there wondering why you just HAD to speak up, and is it worth it… but the support we get from the community reaffirms to us that yes, it is very worth it. And none of this is said to scare any other business away from speaking up for what you believe in, whatever that is. I think if more businesses did that, it wouldn’t be so shocking to the public when it happens.
Yes, you could have every single person as a customer and never offend anyone (but you will still offend someone by just existing), and maybe that’s what you want. For us, we want to be genuine, we want people to know what we stand for, and then they can decide if they support us or not.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thecoronadophx.com www.darkhallcoffee.com
- Instagram: @thecoronadophx @darkhallcoffee
Image Credits
Emily Spetrino