We were lucky to catch up with Sachi & Chiyo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sachi & Chiyo, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

When we decided to open SACHI, we already had the full vision of a mixed retail space that was complimented by a coffee shop. We wanted a place for people to come together and feel comfortable to hang out. At the time, a lot of third wave coffee had a very clean and sterile aesthetic. Knowing that our space would be filled with plants, clothes and art, it was important for us to create an uplifting, energetic atmosphere that encouraged conversation and open heartedness.

We searched our brains for a name that had a message – something that conveyed a positive and welcoming environment. It needed to be easy to say, and of course, be unique enough that it was optimized for ease in web searches. We also wanted to have a symbol that represented our brand. Some sort of stamp or icon like a mascot. The name needed to work for both a coffee shop and a retail store. Some options for retail didn’t sound clean or yummy enough to also work for coffee. Lastly, it was important for us to represent our Japanese heritage.

Chiyo actually came up with the idea of using Sachi’s name. It covered our entire list of requirements. Sachi means happiness – an all encompassing word to explain our goal for the space. We want to be the uplifting, welcoming moment in your day that allows you to drop in and experience your surroundings. Sachi is also easy to say- she doesn’t often have to repeat it or spell it when she introduces herself – unlike Chiyo. Luckily we already had that research.
The symbol was a cherry on top. Many Japanese names have more that one symbol. For example, Chiyo’s uses two. Sachi’s kanji has one symbol that is rather simple and somewhat symmetrical. We put it on everything. Our original idea was “Sachi’s”, as many people do when using a person’s name. Chiyo’s old boss actually recommended we drop the “apostrophe s”. Letting the name stand alone in its meaning rather than making it a possessive was the perfect touch.

While the name does come from Sachi, the message is not about her. It is about happiness. What we share with our little shop is all about creating little pockets of happiness.

Sachi & Chiyo, 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?

We have an interesting story where neither of us had coffee backgrounds. Our story all comes down to our family history and connection with Japan.

Coffee found its way into our lives because our mother, Yasuko would bring a special vanilla nut roast coffee to Japan every year since we can remember. We would bring upwards of 50 bags of coffee each time. Yasuko is an amazing chef and with this faux coffee delivery service, she actually had the original idea to open a cafe.

Our grandparents in Nagano, Japan were farmers. Every morning we would wake up with them and go to their ‘hatake’ (a small personal farm). It was common for hatake to line a whole block. There would be blocks of houses, and then blocks of hatake. Each family would share their crops with friends and family.

After a morning at the hatake, our grandfather would line up boxes and place sturdy items from his prized harvest into the boxes, along with a bag of coffee. Three different types of daikon, two types of apples, a kabocha pumpkin and a bag of this vanilla nut roast coffee from Peter James. We would then all sit down and drink the coffee together. The coffee not only brought us all together around the table, but it also connected us to our friends and family all over Japan who we didn’t see often. Everyone received it with a smile and it truly was our way or sharing a happy moment together.

We took different things from this experience. Sachi learned her love for gardening and developed a major green thumb. Our grandparents always spoke about the health of the plant as if they were beings with souls. This type of personification comes from the indiginous Shinto religion of Japan. There is an understanding that there is spirit in everything and therefore, we just respect that spirit. Sachi cares for plants as if they are pets.

We put a lot of care into our plant shop and intends to share this same type of care. Sachi hand selects each individual plant that we sell and we are often complimented on the health and happiness of our plants. Sachi encourages care in a way or nurture, even telling people to talk to their plants because that will make them happy.

Chiyo learned a love for cooking from our mom and Japan. Coming home from the hatake and getting to wash, cut and prepare the delicate harvest became a grounding and beautiful experience. Knowing all the work that went into growing each eggplant, green bean, and shishito pepper made every item “daiji” (a Japanese word meaning important or valuable in a special way).

Through her love for cooking, Chiyo developed all of our recipes. We have a special Salted Maca Caramel Latte that we make in house. The Maca powder adds a nuttiness that perfectly balances the light caramel. She also ideated the Earl Grey Lavender Latte which we make with a loose leaf tea and real lavender flowers.

Chiyo also has a background in fashion but left the fashion industry because of its environmental impact. She has always loved and collected vintage clothing. Through seeing amazing vintage clothing stores in Japan, she became inspired to curate and sell vintage in our shop as well. When using new clothing for our shop merch, we always focus on natural fibers and local production.

As a family we have always loved the art of hospitality and hosting. We find it very important to make people feel welcomed and comfortable. What’s interesting about a restaurant (especially when it is a privately owned small business) is that it is really like an extension of your home. We prepare the shop and open the doors everyday to invite people into our space. We tell our staff to act as if they are hosting a party in their house. It is really important to us that everyone feels like they have a place there to drop in.

Because we use the shop as an outlet to express our creativity and turn our hobbies into a business, we also like to help encourage other artists and small businesses by sharing our space with them. We search for small local brands to carry in our shop, and we share our space with other vendors to pop-up. We have individual vendors like Ugly Bao and De Cea Jewelry pop-up frequently in our retail space, and we also host larger markets where we invite 10 vendors to pop-up in our back parking lot. We feature local artists on our walls and do merch collaborations with them as well.

One thing we are really proud of is our community. We are now on year 7 and we have a long history of customers who have been coming since we opened, customers who moved away but come back to visit, and a big family of both old and new staff that we still keep in touch with. We always try our best to put people first, be understanding and supportive of the human experience. Our community really feels like a family.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

This has been been one of our biggest learning curves and time consumers that we didn’t quite anticipate. Managing a team is wild because you have all of these individual people who are living their own lives. having their own experiences and going through their own up’s and downs. Especially in hospitality, it is difficult to really show up everyday and bring positive energy. In some jobs, you can be having a bad day, put your head down and still do your work. In restaurants, you need to put your feelings aside and still make people feel welcome.

Being aware of the human experience outside of work has been a counterintuitive and effective strategy for managing team morale. When we notice a performance issue or poor attitude, we try to take the time to check in with the person and just see how they are doing – how their life is going. Many times, the issue is not that they are not greeting customers, it’s that they are dealing with something stressful completely unrelated to work and they are having a hard time that day. In these cases, we try to find a task for them that is less social. Often times, just by being understanding and offering a listening ear, the person feels a bit less stressed and able to get out of their heads and drop into work more.

We try our best to get to know our people and know what is going on with their lives. Understand and respect that work is not their whole life and in return hope for respect for our business as well. If you want your livelihood and business (which is an extension of yourself) to be taken seriously and treated well, it is important to do the same back.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When the pandemic hit we were just a year into our business. Luckily we had had the time to grow a loyal customer base but we weren’t sure what was to come. We had been wanting to develop an online ordering system so when indoor dining was shut down, we moved quickly on this. By the time we were allowed to re-open as an essential business, we had a simple website ready for online orders. We shifted our products to bulk jars so that people could make their favorite drinks at home. We were driving all around Los Angeles buying jars of all sizes for our cold brew, chai and earl grey lavender concentrates.

Many people were redoing their homes and work spaces so we were able to continue selling plants as well. There was a huge outpour of support from our community that we will forever remember and be grateful for. We set up a little table at the front door and all customers had to do was say their name for pick-up and we would pass them their order. We teamed with a local farm box to pass our boxes as well.

When the holidays came around, many customers brought us sweet gifts and letters. The general message was that we were often times the only people that our customers say each day and just the masked waves and eye smiles brought so much joy to their day.

The business next door to us ended up closing and although it was a difficult time to take on a new investment, we decided to make the leap and take over the space next door. This allowed us to open our retail space. It was scary but worth the risk.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sachi.la
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/sachi.la
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sachi-la-los-angeles

Image Credits

Images by Matthew Christopher Miller

https://matthewchristophermiller.com/