We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ana Valle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
The idea was rooted at an early age in my life, drinking coffee with my grandmother. However it was not until my adult life when the revelation came to me that I needed to open a coffee shop that reflected my childhood memories of drinking coffee in El Salvador combined with the multi cultural experiences inspired by my family’s immigrant experience in San Francisco, CA. The main inspiration is definitely tied to my cultural roots with a San Francisco twist. I knew I needed to create a space with an honest reflection of my inspirations that many that grew up like me would feel a connection to. We are that destination for Latin inspired specialty coffee that was missing in the industry in this city.
Our menu, coffee and specialty drinks have been well received by the community, visitors and all that have made their way out here to drink our cafecitos! We enjoy and appreciate all of our customers and are excited to continue to grow our vision!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I got into the specialty coffee industry by taking a barista job, learning how to roast coffee, learning how to taste coffee, learning how to develop my ideas into creative recipes. I emerged myself in all things coffee for a while. I visited multiple coffee farms, always learning something. I believe that sometimes you start with an idea and that idea always evolves but if you have clarity in the vision you want then it all falls into place. I am very proud of what has been created here at the coffee shop!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Opening a small business after the pandemic has definitely set the tone to a new reality unknown for many folks that have been in business pre-pandemic. Everything feels as it has been flipped. For me, opening after the pandemic has also been worked for me because I have no reference or previous knowledge of how things may have turned out or been in pre-pandemic times. This new reality is all I know and I’m working with it, making it happen.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Lessons I have learned is that you have to stay true to your vision and not doubt yourself. Take the risk. I think about how long it took me to take the leap into something I had been wanting to do for a long time. It turns out I should have trusted my self and believed in myself since the very beginning.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.abanicocoffee.com
- Instagram: @AbanicoCoffeeRoasters
- Facebook: @AbanicoCoffeeRoasters
Image Credits
Rocio Russo Pearce