We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Fabian Juarez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Fabian , thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
The stars were aligned for me in 2019 when I was getting ready to quit my full time job working at the Tesla Factory for almost 2 years. I was over trying to climb the corporate ladder. I put in long hard work there and exhausted myself. I had no clue what I was going to do next other than get back into firefighting work and go from there. My dream was to buy a van that I could live out of and travel along the coast of California, the state where I’m from. I was heavily getting into surfing and it was slowly consuming my life while working in Nevada.
I’ll never forget the day back in 2019, sitting at the Reno library browsing Craigslist for firefighting jobs and vans. I stumbled upon a post that said, “mobile coffee van for sale”. The price was insane and I could not believe it. The owner had just posted it so I was hoping it was still available. I called her right away, and she said she would hold it for me to pick up that weekend. I rounded up the pup I was watching and a friend from work to drive my SUV back home to Reno. I pulled some money out of the Truckee bank and headed towards Sacramento to pick up the van.
I knew this was my calling. The previous van’s owner had dogs and coffee all over it; It was called Pups and Cups. She said she heard it in my voice and that I was serious and that someone was getting ready to offer her more but she would hold it for me. I was so excited because I just started to envision what I would do with the van when I got back home to California – the idea of how unique this business would be once I got it off the ground and how bad my hometown needed good espresso. Unfortunately, I had to save a bit more money and stick it out a couple more months at my job before my trip back home. That required living out of my SUV since my lease had just ended and selling it online before heading home. I had nothing but time to think about and how I wanted my van to look and the audience it was about to attract. I was so ready to get home and do the real work.
Fabian , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Fabian Juarez and I was born in the Imperial Valley. I moved around right after high school because I knew there was nothing for me here. When I turned 18, I was able to apply to the job I wanted. I took my first job in Ventura County working for a conservation corps. On the web, it looked like a dream, but when I got there, I realized it was kind of a nightmare of racism and people from broken homes living in the same quarters while working together. I had no choice but to stick it out for a few months because I didn’t want to let my parents down. The company motto was, “hard work, low pay, miserable conditions and more!” We were up at 6am and in line for roll call, mostly doing highway maintenance and trail work. I’m not proud of this chapter in my life but I can say it was a great experience seeing the world with its beauty and ugliness. I also signed up to assist a fire camp for a week in the mountains, which I believe helped me get my first wildland firefighting job later on in life. I also learned how to chop it up a little in the kitchen with a very stubborn old black man, named Mr. C. He was hard on me but if you made it out the first week you had his respect. I always looked forward to Big C burgers every Friday!
Coffee and tea was already my thing so I always took advantage of it when I could. I learned to appreciate a good cup of coffee back in the early 2000s. My Aunt from Los Angeles always had Petes on the pot for Grandpa before starting work at sunrise (the Sgt. Dickinsons blend)! I remember the aroma and how good that coffee tasted on the weekends. It was something to look forward to before starting work chucking hay bales onto the trailer in the summer or grabbing feed from lots. It wasn’t until I moved to Reno in 2015 that I learned about espresso from a girl I was dating at the time. She turned me on to the french press, moka pot, and her Moms automatic Starbucks machine. I learned about cappuccinos and the world of specialty coffee. I never lived far from a good coffee shop. When I moved back to California, I had my van but no experience in a coffee shop or how to work a machine, so I mostly learned from Youtube during Covid. I had a few people in the game show me, but I had to learn art and technique on my days off through mostly trial and error. It’s funny because customers will come back to you just based on how you foam milk compared to other baristas at different coffee shops.
That’s how I feel when I walk into coffee shops now. You can almost already tell how good that Barista is trained by watching them work. I’m proud to say that I have put in the work to get where I’m at but I know I still have a great road ahead of me. I worked micro-fests during Covid and kept hammering until I hit over 25,000 attendees at music festivals. I even got hired at Coachella and a show at the Snapdragon Stadium twice from the same artists. The van brings its own vibe but the coffee is what truly shows. I use house made and organic syrups and fresh locally-roasted beans. The taste is clean but not overly complex. and it’s just right when it’s cold outside. I’m available for gigs year round and I have another truck that is going to be converted in the future. I get so busy, I can’t take all the gigs, so operating another truck is ideal. I’m super excited to see the outcome of that project.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I had my first gig for a Comic con event in El centro back in Feb of 2020. Me and my friends were up all night dialing things in when my Espresso machine wouldn’t turn on. I thought I was doomed for good the next day. The funny thing is no one asked for espresso but instead wanted smoothies and cold brew. My next gig I was set for a Cross-fit tournament in March of 2020. I was working odd jobs in San Diego trying to scrape up some money for my business since I never took out a loan or asked for money. I got an email a week prior to the even from the cross-fit owner telling me that the event was cancelled due to Corona. I felt doomed since everything I worked for seemed to be coming to an end. All business shutting down and that was that. I kept my head up and continued working like 3-4 jobs the whole time. I know I wasn’t going to let this affect me and that if I kept saving I would be able to buy a good espresso machine that wouldn’t fail me. I saved up over 2k that summer when I purchased my first single group machine with a sweet grinder in July of 2020. It was in mint condition with all the bells and whistles.
That whole summer on my days off which were like one, I would perfect my craft and pull shots for myself and the room mates. I was trying to figure it all out on my own but I wanted to learn from the best so I asked baristas that worked at the best and was finally able to get one to come over and teach me for about 30 mins. The rest is all Youtube and having my first line at a small festival where you really have to think quickly. I’m thankful for those days doing it all on my own. Also, If any one is trying to get in the game of festivals in the middle of nowhere make sure you pack warm and have extra generator power. Everything can go wrong that can stop you from sells in the morning. I had to learn the hard way starting.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I was working in San Diego and taking a class to become EMR certified back in 2020. It was more like a plan b for me. I was losing hope on the business with Covid and trying to get inspected and licensed for my van. Once I passed my inspection in Jan of 2021 I started to try it out on the weekends and realized it was enough for me to quit my job and career path and go full time with it. I was doing so good that I was able to hire someone almost instantly the first 3 months. We worked some markets and gigs and daily on the street. The following year I hired a bartender who really helped get me to where I am today. That year was rough as we were still scaling trying to get all the gigs but I am certain without his knowledge and ethics I don’t think I would be where I’m at today. He stuck it out with me thru the cold, hot, and wet days and we worked hard to make some good connections.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.duneandseacoffee.com
- Instagram: Duneandseacoffee
- Facebook: duneandseacoffee
- Yelp: Dune and sea coffee
Image Credits
photo credit
@heidijguti