What if a coffee truck could work with just a handful of customers in a neighborhood each morning? Juan Sanchez created Coffee in Your Community, a business built around serving small groups of customers in the same Raleigh-area neighborhoods every week. His compact coffee trucks bring a local coffee shop experience to places where a permanent storefront might struggle to survive. With just one barista and a quick setup, the trucks can serve relatively few customers and still make financial sense. They've quickly become familiar fixtures in the neighborhoods they serve, opening up possibilities for other small businesses to find customers in places they might otherwise overlook.
Hi, everybody! Welcome to another episode of the Bottom Up Revolution Podcast. I'm your host Tiffany Owens Reed. If you've been listening to the show for a while, then you may have picked up on the fact that one of the things I really enjoy hearing about from my guests are the small businesses that they like to recommend in their community at the end of the show? And I'm usually always prodding for a coffee shop because I think coffee shops are just wonderful third spaces and a wonderful way to help people get a feel for the community and also to have a chance to build loose social capital and get to know the people that they share that community with today's guest is going to be bringing his experience to our show.
He runs a coffee shop in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, but it's an unconventional coffee shop, and he's going to tell us all about it. And I think his story is really interesting because he's not just doing this out of a love for being a small business owner, or I love for coffee, but he also has a really interesting component to this to his business, which is Really building community, helping people build community in a really creative and innovative way. I'm joined by Juan Sanchez.
He's the founder of Coffee in Your Community, a rapidly growing neighborhood-focused coffee truck brand built on intentional design, community connection, and a modern, experience-driven approach to coffee, with a background in brand design, marketing, and social media, Juan turned a simple idea: create happier, healthier mornings for local residents, into a fully functioning MVP and eventually a beloved mobile business in the Triangle area. I found out about Juan because my mom saw his content on Instagram and sent it to me, and I think it's just really fun what he's doing, and I'm excited to bring his story to you. Juan, welcome to the Bottom Up Revolution Podcast.
Hey, hi Tiffany, thank you for inviting me To the Bottom Up Revolution Podcast, and I hope we can inspire others.
Yes, I have no doubt about that. Juan, you're originally from Spain. I would love to start off this conversation, giving you a chance to share your story a bit. How did you come to live in the United States, and how did you come to ultimately settle in Raleigh?
All right, so it's a long story, but I'm gonna try to make it short. So I met my wife, who is American, back in 2009 in Madrid. She was teaching English with an university Student program, like an exchange program. So we meet there for a few months, and then she moved back to the U.S. We were kind of talking in distance for about a year, and then suddenly she got a job in Singapore. I decided that it was actually a cool place to go, so I moved there.
We spent six years, and then what happened is once we were done a little bit with the expat lifestyle, we decided that we wanted to kind of build a family and get into more adult life, and we picked actually LA where she's from. We spent almost two years there. We had our first daughter Luna, and then we were obviously wanted to buy a property, a house, but it was pretty hard over there. So her parents live in Angier, North Carolina, and we were coming here every Christmas.
And like we started like to see some of the houses that we're building here, it was still like a great time to buy, and it's always nice to have some help from them. So one day we were like, what, let's let's go, and we grab our stuff and we bought a property, and now we've been living there here in Raleigh for eight years.
So Raleigh is a beautiful city. I finished high school in Raleigh, and my fam, my mom and siblings are still there. I get to come back. I don't know the last time I've been to Raleigh, but I'll be there next month, and I'm really excited.
Oh, awesome! We should meet.
Yes, no, we should. I should come get a coffee. That'll be that'll be fun. What stood out to you, Juan? As you, I mean, I know you've you've lived all over the world. You've I'm sure you've been to other cities in the U.S. But as you were, getting settled in the U.S., what stood out to you over the years about how our places are designed, and kind of comparing that to the other global cities you've been to, or maybe to your home your homeland, Spain. How? What's what are the differences about like how the place is designed and how that affects like our rhythms of life and our ability to feel connected to each other?
Well, I would say that, and don't don't take this wrong. Okay, Americans, please don't take this wrong. But I think like U.S. is being built for cars and fences, right? I think the way we built European cities is different, also because they were there like way long time ago. There is a lot more historical buildings, etc. Right? So what you realize actually when you move to Europe or you live in Europe is like a car is actually not needed,. You have the busses, you have the transport, the public transport, and everything. So, what is cool is like in any of these cities, you can like do like 10,000 steps without even realizing.
When I first moved to the U.S., I remember it was the traffic. Also, you have to understand, I moved from Singapore six years where we were just taking taxis and the metro Into LA where everything you need a car for everything you have the big freeways so that was kind of an important aspect that kind of was a little bit shocking and hard for me Actually took me some time to get my driver's license because my Spanish one didn't. You can use it, I think, for just one year.
And then the other one was also like it was very hard to just like connect with someone and go for a coffee or a drink just tomorrow or this evening. like But then you understand that the main reason is actually the distances. everything is much farther away. You need to drive like 20 minutes. You have to look for if there's going to be a lot of traffic. So I think it's also, and I think as you pointed, is it's very like it's about like it's really like a design element. that impacts the differences between The cities where I come from and American cities.
It's like chicken and the egg. Is it culture comes from design or design shape? I think design shapes culture. I think I think we could say that. I don't know if culture shapes design. I think values shape design, and design can shape culture. Maybe someone will write me an email and tell me that I'm wrong.
Yeah, I think design shapes culture, But kind of culture defines Design. but yeah, it's a little bit both.
Yeah, yeah, like values shape design, and then design can shape culture, or maybe there's multiple types of culture. But yeah, I, Yeah, it's. But I mean, I guess the point is, the Culture of a place really is shaped heavily. Maybe not ultimately or only, but I think the role that the way that the built environment is configured has a huge impact on culture. Because I've been to Europe, and what you're saying about the unscheduled social time is huge. Like, I feel like a huge part of experiencing Europe was the spontaneous outings or the spon like people. And the other thing too, I remember is that people were not afraid of strangers as much.
Like, I had, maybe it's just hostile culture or just travel culture, but I just remember people were way. It was so much easier to just kind of get invited to things, like literally off the street. people. It just wasn't as I don't know. People just weren't As afraid, or it wasn't. And like you, like you said, it didn't take a lot of. It wasn't this thing you had to plan out. But because the streets were always full of people, and there were always travelers around, and there were always, when you're doing this in your 20s, always young people around.
It was just easy to find yourself kind of grouped in to a group of people going out to get tapas or get a beer or get a like. It just, it just.
I think one of the one of the bigger the bigger or the biggest elements there is also the social media, how that impacted our daily life because now people, you meet someone, you check their Instagram, you do your okay, check, check, check. we are used to now to know someone before we even meet them, and I think that has shaped a little bit the way we socialize nowadays. I don't think it's a good thing. It's not the worst thing, but I think that has definitely impacted. like that spontaneity that you were talking about.
Are you saying you think that's it's changing in Europe, where people are where they're losing that spontaneity?
I think it's changing Everywhere. because again, like already the places where to go. You have the reviews on Google. You have everything. So people before taking or making a decision, they are gonna always like, okay, let me check the reviews of this place before meeting someone. Let me check their Instagram. like that spontaneity is being kind of reduced.
Maybe I am reflecting. I think my experience may have been shaped heavily by travel culture because I think when young people are traveling and they're hanging out at hostels, there was just like a. It was almost like not like a feeling of becoming immediate, not friends like in terms of depth, but just almost like buddies. Yeah, like you are in the same you are in the same boat. And it just it wasn't a it was just like automatically you were doing things with you. But I did find it. I did find an element of that to be uniquely European.
I was like I don't think most Americans walk into a hostel and automatically are just including the people around them. So I think there. Something about just that immediate warmth and like inclusion and like
Just the ease of the social ease. If you look, also has to do with the distances. like you can travel to in Europe one hour flight and you are in a totally different culture with different buildings with different design with different Language. the values are European values, but there is a lot of changes,. So I think people tend to want to be part of the different Cultures, and they feel European,. Like so, for example, when I was studying, well, still now still Available now, but it's this student exchange program that is called Erasmus. So that was a great experience, like because you get to.
I went to France, so you get to go to another European country and spend one year there, studying the language, the culture, and you can convalidate all the all the signatures, all the signatures, sorry, all the subjects From your degree, and I think it's a great, great thing to do in Europe. For example, and I'm so happy I did it.
So I'd love to hear a little bit more about your professional journey in the midst of all of this. Can you share with us a bit about your background, and then we'll talk a little bit about how that Led you to where you are now with your business in Raleigh.
Awesome. So like I studied like advertising and public relations with the specialization on digital and digital and marketing, and Like all the social media, all the digital components of marketing were like my passion. I had a I had a blog that I wrote for many years in Spain that it got pretty popular. It opened a lot of doors and opportunities job wise, But when I when I moved back to when I moved to the US after Singapore, I kind of was feeling that I was tired of working in agencies. The corporate World was kind of becoming a little bit tiring for me, not as inspiring.
And it's when I decided to like fully become like an entrepreneur. I launched a company to in 2017 to Help people disconnect from their phones by using analog products. And I had built another companies before. I started like to really develop that sense of I want to build something myself. I want to change the world in a way that I would love it to be, And That's kind of. I quit my corporate career.
I still use obviously all the marketing and all the advertising learnings and things that I that I learned during these years, But I really wanted to kind of do something that can inspire people and can change the world, as everybody that says it, right? To make the world a better place, right? And That was a little bit like what ended up being, or ended up becoming Coffee in Your Community. If you look at coffee in your community, is really The result of all little pieces of my life previously.
So tell me about the jump from. So you have your corporate career, and then you were working on a different business. It sounds like. What's the backstory behind coffee in your community? Maybe you could share with our audience, how the business is actually set up.
So, coffee in your community was, It's an idea that came from different elements, right? So, I remember it was early 2020, right before COVID, And we were looking for a bigger house because we had also our second daughter on the way, she was born actually on March 30th of 2020, which is exactly when COVID fully hit. And I remember we wanted to look for a bigger house in a community where you have all these facilities. the swimming pool, the playground. You have the cul-de-sacs.
You have the clubhouse and all these elements, but I remember going and visiting all these communities and tell myself, wow, there is nobody out. like people are not really like engaging or socializing that much. obviously some people were, but not everybody. And I always thought like, wow, like it's a shame because you have all these facilities, and nobody's using them that much. So at that time, I was like, I would love to, I was like, it would be great to bring or create like a mobile business to encourage or to help people to get together more. And but the idea was a little bit like vague.
I know it was something mobile. That I could take to different communities, but as I mentioned, the idea was very vague, and it's like, okay, so how do I start with this? so I let it there, sitting there for a while, And I managed to sell the business that I was doing right before Bagby, which it was with the analog products, and I always had at this time I had this idea that I called the Mediterranean Dream, which was kind of a lifestyle brand, a little vague too.
But the idea was to create a lifestyle brand to inspire Americans to live the Mediterranean way, which means it's lower pace, friends and family at the center, exercise, Mediterranean diets, but I didn't know how to start because it was like, okay, it's nice concept, I love it, but how you start? And then one day I remember I was enjoying my morning latte, And I was like, This is kind of your me time, right? And I had this kind of aha moment where I'm like, actually, like, what about if we create like coffee trucks that go into communities and subdivisions, and encourage Americans to take that morning walk, socialize with a neighbor, and support local businesses.
So instead of driving 510, or 15 minutes to the closer Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts for an average experience. We can actually bring that to their communities. So at the end of the day, that's why everything is a little bit related because if you think about it, this is has to do with the Mediterranean dream idea, and the idea at the end is to bring that European lifestyle to the American societies. The thing is, you cannot just bring this like that, right? You have to adapt it. You have to understand a little bit how it works.
So, When I had these things together, and I say, "Wow, okay, so mobile coffee to start, that would be great." I remember I was looking for, I ran a test, a market test with another coffee truck owner, and I told him, "It's like, hey, come to these communities. I'm gonna talk to HOA. They will allow us to serve there for a day, And I want to see how, Like how we can bring people together. How many people will come? What do we need? How we can make it better? And I realized one of the things was like, Wow, like it took the guy, the barista, like 45 minutes to set up.
It was a trailer, so you have more time to set up. It's a bit more. It's a bit harder. You need more time. Then I realize it's like, wow! I need to find a format where it's much easier, quick, fast. We don't need like more than one barista because there's not that many people that are gonna show up. Think about these are just daily services, right? It's not like a big event. So then, looking on Instagram, I found these guys who were creating and designing these coffee these coffee trucks. So these coffee areas built into these Japanese kei trucks that became very popular in the U.S. in the last 10 years.
And what is nice is like you can build the entire thing. It's like a pickup, but very small, six by 10 feet basically. And what is nice about it is like you build the custom structure on top of the of the bed of the truck, and then you open it up, so you are with the people, and you just need one barista. I was like, I love that.
Yeah, we're definitely gonna post to your Instagram. We're definitely gonna share to your Instagram, so people can see the visual side to all of this because this podcast is obviously not visual. But I love that emphasis on creating an experience so that you are with the with your with your customers, but I also think it's really interesting because Americans are used to food trucks, but they're used to food trucks at food truck places, right? So the food truck mall or the, they're used to seeing food trucks where there are businesses.
I think what you're doing is really unique in that you're bringing the coffee truck to an environment that doesn't have small businesses because it's legally not allowed. We're legally not allowed to have small businesses there, And it's very different. It's very different having a coffee in your neighborhood with your neighbors versus oh, we're going to the cute food truck place.?
Yeah. At the at the end, it's a numbers game, right? Like I, I remember like talking to HOAs and all this is like, most of the food trucks, if they want to go to a community subdivision, they are they are gonna obviously ask for a fee. That fee tends to be too high for the HOA Because at the end, you don't know how many people are gonna show. maybe one day you have like 50 people or 100 people, but sometimes you have like five people, right? So you need like you need a very versatile and quick to set up Format that you can.
It doesn't take you like an hour to set up, so you just arrive five minutes, you are set up. I actually. Posted a video on Instagram about that, and it's pretty amazing. It's like three minutes. You can tell me how I park. I open the truck. I put like few things around, and then we are ready to serve. then if a community doesn't work because there is no interest or there is not a lot of enough people, we can always move that truck to another community. there are plenty, and if you think about it, like, And I think as you mentioned, I think it has to be with the zoning.
So on these communities and subdivisions, there are communities that are like 500, 1000 houses, right? And there is no like a coffee shop, there is no a bar, there is no like a destination place for people to just go and hang out, right? So it has to do also. At the end, it's a it's a it's a game of numbers,. Like I guess like there is no coffee shop in these communities because the investment doesn't justify the revenue.
Now with this business model, you can match those numbers because your setup is smaller; it's not as expensive, And also you have only one barista serving. so if you have less people, You are like your break-even is actually much lower than a normal brick-and-mortar coffee shop or than a big coffee trailer or a big coffee truck, what I mean?
Yeah, and then that's that. That adds some complexity to the conversation about accessory commercial units, because we talk a lot about accessory dwelling units, which are smaller housing options that can be built behind houses. But and the other side of that is the accessible commercial unit, which is well, how can we start bringing businesses back into neighborhoods, and you touch on something that's really important. Part of that is zoning. Part of that is legally allowing them to exist there. The other part of it is you need a critical density, a critical level of density in order for those businesses to actually be viable.
We've seen that here and where I live in Waco. There's, we had a corner store that we really loved, but I don't think they were able to last very long, partly because of competition from really large grocery stores, but partly because the neighborhoods are just not dense enough to provide enough customers for them to actually break even. So it's really helpful to have that perspective, and I think what you're doing is perhaps showing an innovative way to a like prove that there is demand for neighborhood businesses in these subdivisions, and also provide a viable way for those businesses to start to exist in a way that's that's actually financially sustainable, right?
Like these really little trucks; they're mobile; they can move around the city, but at the same time, they're able to provide moments of neighborhood-based enterprise. And I want to go back to what I was saying earlier. There's a big difference when you're when you're when you're visiting a business that's just in your neighborhood versus getting in your car and going to a business that's that you've picked because of what you're what because of your own personal demand. Like, oh, I really want Thai food. I'm going to get in the car and go to my favorite Thai restaurant.
There's just a different consumer experience from Walking down the street to your neighborhood coffee shop, even if it doesn't meet every single one of your like preferences, And having that preference-based consumer experience. And I think that's the other side to what you're doing is creating an opportunity for the neighborhood to have a sense of almost like identity because it's like this is this is the people around you are your actual neighbors.
You build a little bit this kind of neighborhood pride where exactly you want you start loving more the place you live. because exactly you're like oh like I live in this community and it's nice, but actually now there is a coffee shop too. So think about this in a way like for us, for the business to work, what we do is we request or we ask for recurrency. So we say, look, we want to come once a week, Every week, same time, same day. So basically, what we do is same community, Same day, same schedule. Usually, like eight to 12.
So that's cool because if you live in one of the communities we go, that every Friday eight to 12, you have a coffee shop that comes here to serve you coffee, and it's kind of your break, your time to meet some neighbors, take that morning walk, slow down a little bit. So that recurrency is one of the keys of our business as well because It's a way of look We think that if we come one day we're not gonna have everybody coming, but if we do it in during three months, and we come every Friday. Everybody knows that. Everybody put it on their agenda.
So we talk about how, Americans like to put things on their agendas, and the spontaneity sometimes lacks of lacks a little bit. So it's a way of. It's like think about when you go to Europe, right? You have all these. Small coffee shops, just one win, one door, one window, three chairs, and it's just very tiny, right? So, even if we are a mobile business, we have to do more with that concept of small coffee shop in Europe than with a food truck, because we are mobile because we cannot just like build brick and mortar coffee shops there. It will cost a lot of money, But we actually function as a tiny, small coffee shop.
So that's kind of the idea. And I think that recurrency is where the magic Sits. It's hard because sometimes you have weeks that are slower, but the moment you start showing every week, there is some magic that happens because people start thinking and realizing that oh, I have a coffee shop in my community. And then, and I think it at that point it's not like novelty. it's not like oh, let's go to the new.
It becomes part of the community, right? And there is a different ease that comes with that. There's a certain ease. There's a familiarity. There's less planning about it. It's just like we put on our sweats and we go take that walk. We grab the dog, and then we start seeing the same neighbors, and then it becomes easier to meet them. And the neighbors; they know the neighbors know the other neighbors. The neighbors know the barista. The neighbors, and it becomes a very more like informal way of socializing, which I think always help.
Yeah. So
You've kind of talked about this in bits and pieces, but I would. Could you just kind of explain like The process around. So, you do you have like how many different neighborhoods are you all in at this point? Who do you have to talk to get permission to be there? Have you run into any hurdles with neighborhoods not wanting you in their neighborhood? I'm just I'm just curious. Maybe if you can kind of tell us a little bit more about behind the scenes of how you've been able to build out, kind of your route or like where you go around the city.
So it's a funny story because the first community I started with it was a new subdivision Here in next to Raleigh on the east side, and that was a new community, right? So the HOA was still with the builder. It was it wasn't managed by neighbors yet, right? So it was very hard, to get in. And I'm like, oh my god! I thought it was, I thought it was easier. And I thought that was kind of the main pain point. But it was just like that first community. It was just because it was still with the under the builder, and the builder didn't want to do anything, right?
Then when I started like engaging with another communities, I realized that it was very easy because if you think about it, right? You talk to the HOA, You are doing. It's not like you are doing their job, right? But you are you are actually helping them do their job because you are putting something to help people socialize more, to have a nicer time in their communities, so for them it's great. Then for the neighbors it's great too because they don't have to drive or they don't have to go anywhere to grab a coffee. They can just walk and also they can meet some other neighbors.
And then for the business, if those part if people are happy with it and they come to grab their coffee, then it works, right? So it's a win-win for all the three Players in this kind of system, right? So basically, what we do is we talk to we identify who is the HOA, We find like the main contact. It can be like the president of HOA, or you can be like someone who's working In the department, and then we send them an email with the way of working With other communities that we serve, and why we are doing this, and like 99.9% love the idea.
Also, it's free for them, right? So you also remove that kind of pain point from for HOA. And at the end of the day, like everybody is happy, People love it. HOA is happy as well. Business goes well. Why not to come every week? So that's the way it work is actually simple. once you identify and understand the business model, and at the end of the day, the moment things the moment things work for everybody, is when things get much easier. so that's a little bit kind of the process, really. And then we serve about like We serve about like 10 to 12 communities.
Most of them, we go. 90% of them, we go every week because that's the way we like it. like it's easier for people to know that we're gonna be there, and also you create you start creating that community element that I think is the most important. Again, you were gonna have some weeks that are. Slower, but at the end of the day, I rather have A year where I know that I have to go Every week without spending time in marketing, without spending time in looking for events, looking for venues, Than having like one big event a year that it gets crazy.
You don't get time to talk to anybody. It gets too busy. People don't enjoy it. So I think it's that's that's really like what it's all about.
So where do you park the truck in the neighborhoods?
So usually we park like in the in the in a parking lot next to clubhouses. Okay, there is usually there you there is where usually you have the swimming pool. You might have some tennis court. You might have like the playground for the kids. So then that area becomes kind of the central social element or social place for neighbors.
So we've been talking about this already, but clearly, like a big part of your mission, big part of your goal is to Create the that opportunity for neighbors to meet each other, to help the neighborhood not just be a neighborhood, but also become to have a sense of community where people are not just strangers living next door. Can you share more about that goal and maybe what you've seen as you've started working in these neighborhoods, in terms of people being able to build that sense of connection with people they live close to.
So if you remember when I was talking about how I got inspired to start this, the main goal was about like encouraging people to our neighbors to socialize more, And it's very interesting because like you go to some communities and then you start seeing like neighbors that they lived in the same community. They are like probably next door neighbors, and they haven't talked to each other in 10 years. And then you see them coming and it's like, oh, where do you live? Oh, I live in the one o6. It's like no, really. I live in the o1 o5. We never met before,.
So it's pretty interesting. When that happens, I usually make videos and I post them on Instagram because, Is what really, really like make me, want to keep going and build more,. And at the end, if you think about it. Like coffee is just like The vehicle to Fulfill our mission. we are also thinking. I don't know when. I don't want to put it there Too early. But we were thinking also that in the morning we can do coffee, and then in the evening we can do aperitivo in your community, for example, right? So you have all these communities that are bringing also food trucks in some way in the evenings.
So we could actually use the same truck, add some display elements, and bring some charcuterie boards, spritz, mocktails, something for the kids as well, And do the same that we're already doing in the morning, but do it in the evening. That would be awesome because then you can actually use the same truck, make it work twice a day, and you already have made the connection with HOA. You already made the connection with the neighbors, so you are just it's way easier to start that part. Again, I don't know when we're gonna do it, but it's in my mind for sure.
Yeah, You have this saying that you've shared on Instagram a few times. that maybe Americans are becoming more European. Can you unpack that a bit? What do you mean by that?
Yeah, so that's actually a key insight that I that I found over the last year. I think Americans they have started realizing, and you see that in a lot of cultural things. how there is another way of living, like how like taking that morning walk is important. How it's nice to meet your neighbor. How it's better to eat organic. How it's nice to go sit down on a Saturday, and instead of going to Starbucks, you can go to a local coffee shop, meet the owner, share like your story with other people. Like I think those things are becoming more relevant into the American culture than they were before.
So that's a little bit like what it means really. I also think that and that's the I think Europeans are also becoming more Americans. So a lot of people are moving more to suburbs to find bigger places. They are yeah it's it's it's kind of interesting but yeah it is interesting about that
Yeah I think there's I mean this is why I find it so interesting to think about cities in general because it's kind of a proxy for thinking about what it means to be human. cities sort of give us this opportunity to ask questions about like, well, what do we need? what do humans desire? What gives them meaning? And you start to realize there are always. These tensions, right? That there's always a push and pull, right? The push towards community, the pull towards privacy, the push towards connection, the pull back towards what's familiar, right? Convenience, convenience, socially to be.
And so I think when you see trends like that, it's just a reminder of like, yes, well, as a as humans, we're always stuck in some kind of push and pull between the individual and the society at large, like the neighborhood or the community at large, and we're always wrestling with those different those different tensions, right? Like, and how do we find that good balance? And I think this is part of, one way to interpret like the built environment, right? It's like, well, when you look at the suburb, it's kind of presenting an answer to that tension. It's like, oh, just go all in on privacy, right?
But then you in, and I think big part of what we're trying to do is find where is the balance between all of these things that we need.
Yeah, you get a you get a larger home, you get like more facilities, but then suddenly, like things like a coffee shop or like your grocery store, local grocery store is not there anymore. So you have to go to the bigger places. It's yeah, it's a little bit like this kind of endless fight between Convenience and I don't know if we can.
I guess privacy is the best word we have for it,
Privacy or space or
I don't. Maybe those are not individuation. I guess because I think part of the history of the of the American suburb has to do with an overreaction to the overcrowding of our early cities, of our first cities, and we Just Were shocked. Maybe it was a bit traumatizing what we were seeing in the cities, and we responded to that with a very dramatic, Dramatic idea of the suburb that just got Like abnormally expedited through all of this federal money and federal policy. We didn't really have time for this suburb to really test itself and see, like, Does this really work at a at a large national scale?
Before it was just sort of all of a sudden being we were just implementing it all over the country.
Without, I mean, it's a little bit like it's a little bit the American way, which I think is good. it's like that idea of all in. it's like Americans go all in. it's like bigger. Big is like the biggest.
But I think that's our downfall, though, and I think that's why Strong Towns is always saying, part of what it means to return to an historic approach to cities is maybe to not be so Keen, not be so attracted to being bigger, faster, all in because you can learn a lot by experimenting and testing things incrementally and kind of giving ideas time. As I'm sure as a business owner, as an entrepreneur,
I think like with the COVID element and people being able to work from home more often, like that is pretty new, but it has shaped also a lot of the culture that made also a lot of people moving from tier one cities to tier three, tier four cities. that's what we've experienced the last six years. That's why also one of the reasons rally got so big in the last three four years, right? Because suddenly it's like, oh, I don't need to be in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago and pay like a $5,000 rent. I can actually move to a city where I can work from home.
It's a bit slower pace. Real estate is still affordable. So that actually shaped a lot of What is happening, these days?
Yeah. Well, speaking of Raleigh, Juan, I'd love to know what are some what do what do you love about your neighborhood, and what are some local businesses you like to check? You like to recommend that people check out if they come to visit.
So like I'm I'm a very busy person the last like few years, not only because of the business, but also because like having two kids. My daughters keep me very busy. They are very active. I love them. So I do, I hang out. I go somewhere, but I don't hang out as much as I used to. But if I have to recommend a few places, I think like Brewery Bhavana is my My place to go.
Wait, say that again.
Brewery Bhavana.
Okay.
Yeah, Bhavana is kind of a fusion restaurant, kind of with Asian food. It's really good. The place is the atmosphere is super nice. It's a place that you could put in New York, Los Angeles, or any big city, and it will still work. It's beautiful. The food is great. The service is awesome. Then I think like another restaurant that I like is Ajja. It's a Mediterranean Restaurant near downtown Raleigh. It kind of feels like home. I like the atmosphere. The service is. Also, like slower is nice. The food are like little like plates to share. I love that idea as well.
And then if you are here with friends and things like that, you can go to places like Beer Garden. They have like a nice, super nice backyard to hang out with friends. It's a little bit more of a younger crowd, but they are they are opening like very nice places, and then obviously, I think every local coffee shop in Raleigh is it's awesome. I could name all of them, but they have a nice coffee shop scenery. So I love all these all these places.
I always try to make it to Lake Johnson when I'm in Raleigh. Like it's really nice to walk.
Yeah, like Johnson, Amsterdam, for example, is great. I love running. I used to run more than now, but I still go. And the greenways for me are the best thing in Raleigh. you have like miles and miles of paved ways to go with the bike with running all over Raleigh. Connects like even Durham, the north, the south. That for me is really like a big, big, big game changer. I love that.
Well, obviously, we're going to recommend that our listeners Track you down and visit Coffee in Your Community if they're in the Raleigh area. We'll be putting links to your Instagram for sure, and these other places that you recommend it. But Juan, thank you so much. Thank you for coming on the show and for sharing your story With us. I think what you're doing is really innovative, and it's really encouraging to see An innovative response to the limits In our neighborhoods. the limits on having those small businesses.
I think what you're demonstrating is that we can we can find innovative ways around that to bring businesses, interesting small businesses to our communities, and also create those opportunities for neighbors to get to meet each other. It's been it's been really fun hearing about what you're doing.
Yeah, thank you so much, Tiffany. I hope we inspire someone to Design something better. We now have like two coffee trucks. We're building our third truck, so stay alert because we might be in your neighborhood very soon, and you don't even know.
You met it. You're showing up in Waco, Texas. Okay. Well, to our listeners, thank you so much for joining me for another conversation. If there's someone in your community who you think we should have on the show, please let me know using the suggested guest form. It's how we find out about a lot of interesting people, and I'm always so grateful for the people who take the time to fill that out. I'll be back soon with another conversation. In the meantime, keep doing what you can to build a strong town.
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