We recently connected with Karen & Jonathan Dizon and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Karen & Jonathan , thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve wanted to open a coffee shop since I was twelve! It was always the dream. The dream to be the local shop that people can enjoy and call their neighborhood cafe. A shop that would make everyone feel comfortable and of course serve a mean cup of coffee with even better service. It probably all started as a kid when I would see my parents always drinking coffee. It was constantly around and it looked so tasty that I had to taste and make it myself…

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.

Well, first off, we are born and raised here in Los Angeles. This city, the neighborhood, Los Angeles is where we met, went to school, hung out as kids, eventually started our lives together, grew our family and naturally, it is the place where we knew we were going to start our business. I started working in the food & beverage industry at the age of 14. At the time, it started more for financial reasons, but I ended up really enjoying it. Working at coffee shops at 16 mixed with working at restaurants. I didn’t know much, but I knew one day opening a coffee shop was always in my future.
Right out of high school, I went to culinary school for college and eventually got more experience in food & beverage and specialty coffee. I wanted to learn as much as possible.
Fast forward, when my husband, Jonathan, who left his career in City Planning and Construction/Permit Project Management, called it quits, decided we would throw all all our chips on the table and pursue my dream of finally opening our own coffee shop, together. we knew we had to represent us, our culture, our city and the place and how we grew up. Be authentic, be genuine and be real.
We’re not perfect by any means, but we wanted to make sure we’re vulnerable and be honest with our customers and our space. It honestly feels like we were inviting folks to our home.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Being a small business owner illustrates our resilience all on its own! Haha! We both grew up in broken homes, with not very much money, and followed career paths that were not necessarily designed for “us.” But I think that only fueled the fire even more, so to speak.
But this industry shapes you. It was a different time, 10 or more years ago, and you only really got into this for the love and passion, not for the money. And trust me, definitely not for the money, hahaha.

On the daily, resilience is tested because it’s just never ending projects, having +10 different roles and not to mention surviving your business during the covid pandemic and to this day still recovering our day to day operation because of it, is a battle not only financially, but mentally and emotionally as well.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

We always think of our team as family. Not everyone thinks like that, but what that meant for us is that we value our team and try make it so they enjoy working at our shop, with us and with one each other. We never think that we’re their “boss,’ but create more of a family structure where we can all depend on one another, be mentors and a leader for them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.splcoffee.com
• Instagram: @splcoffee
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/splcoffee
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/spl-coffee-los-angeles?osq=spl+coffee