Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Tran.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Victor. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
After college in 2010, I was in search of starting my own business but I did not know what I wanted to open. My friend from Dallas had a coffee shop and his coffee roaster was looking to sell the roasting business so he asked me if I would be interested in buying the business. I always liked coffee since I was in middle school but I never knew how intricate and detailed coffee was. I decided to come to Dallas to learn about the roasting business and after a couple of months shadowing the original owner I decided to take the risk and move to Dallas where I took over the coffee roasting business, which was my first business, it is called Republic Coffee I have been Air roasting coffee with a Sivetz Air Roaster Since 2010 for other coffee shops, churches, catering companies, etc. In 2015 I had approached one of my accounts about purchasing their coffee shop which was inside Irving bible church. That is how Cuppa Espresso Bar came about. We are inside a megachurch named Irving Bible Church, the church is open daily to the public for people to work from home or just hang out, kind of like a community center.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I would say the good definitely outweighs the bad. Cuppa was my first coffee shop so there was slot of trial and error. One of the biggest hurdles was getting customers to come to my coffee shop since it was inside a big church so a lot of people thought that it was just a coffee shop for the church and the people that went to church there. The first six months were tough, long 13 hour days working everyday trying to keep expenses down since sales weren’t high. I think that right there really tests a person to see if they are really ready to own there own business because I’ve had a few business partners that just weren’t cut to be an entrepreneur, are they willing to put in 70 plus hour weeks without getting paid for God knows how long. It took a good six months to where we started to get a good consistent flow of traffic after so many trial and error with different marketing strategies. I would say Facebook and yelp were the two main marketing outlets that helped our shop tremendously.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Cuppa Espresso Bar story. Tell us more about the business.
My coffee shop is called cuppa espresso bar, we are the only coffee shop in the Dfw that air roasts it’s own coffee using the sivetz air roaster. We’re inside of a megachurch which right there sets us apart from many other coffee shops. We’re are like a hidden gem in Irving TX. The fact that we’re inside of a church but we have such a loyal and consistent customer base everyday makes us special to our community. We are known for our Vietnamese iced coffee and our lavender vanilla latte.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
There has not been any luck good or bad that’s played in my life and business. Everything has been God’s work. I believe the struggles in the beginning lead me to who I’ve become today and my coffee shop.
Pricing:
- Our coffee drinks range from $1.75-$5.50
Contact Info:
- Address: 2435 Kinwest Parkway
Irving, TX 75063 - Phone: 9725604623
- Email: cuppaespressobar@gmail.com
- Instagram: Cuppa_espressobar
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Cuppa-Espresso-Bar-1597862857165255/?ref=bookmarks
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/qTKq/MXbGGfOoT1
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
