Today we’d like to introduce you to Juliet Martin.
Hi Juliet, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We are a family-owned Mexican café, bringing house made flavors from current family recipes, and heartfelt hospitality.
We started in the front of our yard a couple months after both my parents got laid off from their jobs. With only 12 months of savings in the bank, we knew we had to make a move and fast. We took 3 months to build. brand we had always dreamed of having. We have always wanted to own a family business and growing up coffee and pastries were not only a family tradition, but a way to connect with each other.
Maria “Chelo” Martinez is the heart of the family. She is my grandma and very well known for her cooking and desserts. She passed this skill down to my mom, who then passed it onto me. Growing up we moved from house to house, struggling to make a living, always living pay check to pay check. Put I still had an amzazing childhood.
My dad grew up on the Eastside of San Jose. His mom (my grandma who passed away a few months before my parents were laid off), immigrated from Jalisco, Mexico. He grew up without a dad, was homeless for a long time, and eventually kicked out at 15. He grew up fast after becoming a young dad, and always hustled to have the career opportunities he had today. My mom grew up poor with 4 other siblings in the south side of San Jose. Her parents also immigrated from the City of Guadalajara , Mexico.
This is where a lot of the recipes we have now originated from. These immigrants, now once or/and currently are American citizens have set an example. Set a stage. A tradition, A new way of life. While we created this brand, I wanted to share the story of my family with food.
While I had my own struggles. One thing that always stayed near to my heart was my family. The love and passion they had for food and connection.
Our slogan is “Café para vivir” – Coffee to Live. Why? Because yes – you need coffee to live. But your family. The ones you share some cafecito and pan with at night… you need them more. Coffee connects you to family. And you need that to live. Our brand continues these traditions.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This has been the hardest year and challenge of our life. Stress, up at 1:45 am every time we open. We are learning on the go and that is the hardest part but also the most rewarding part. We definitely feel the stress and the pressure to provide especially with mostly everyone losing their jobs, but with our faith, we know we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. We already see so much support and happiness with our customers.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Vivra Café?
We are a mobile coffee cart. We explained a little bit about us in the very beginning of our intro, but one thing that is a big part of our brand is our family and our faith. Our faith has gotten us to tremendous places. Gaining opportunities we never thought we would land before.
The very first pastry we came out with is a concha. This was my grandma’s recipe. I had never made a concha before, never baked bread. When we announced we were going to have conchas, we still didn’t know who our supplier was. We had two months left. So for the next month and a half, I learned. I practiced every other day. Learning over and over again, until I got it right. Finally I succeeded. It now is our top seller passed our coffee and matchas. Any new pastry cannot surpass this one. (:
I have been doing marketing for a long time, always a creative. Love to dance and love to do art. Marketing fit up my ally. My dad, my business partner Gilbert Martin, had worked in cybersecurity as a leader for almost 20 years without a college degree. Our lives are very different from this business. But what we had in common was our love for coffee. I had been drinking it since I was three!
Brand wise, I am part of the community we have gained not only through our brand message, but how people received the message as “we are one big family”. People understood right away this was rooted in culture, faith in Jesus Christ, and how gathering with your family was a special time.
I want out readers to know that, yes we worked hard, and we continue too. But what I want people to stick with is, you are our family too. You are having a bad day? Come get some coffee. You want to talk about it, let’s talk about it. If you don’t, lets dance. Let us pray for you. Walk into our home.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
We loveeee to dance. Any opportunity we get, we love to have fun, create a party!
We also only started making espresso 5 years ago. This was a new art that formed into a hobby. We had planned making a business for a couple of years around my mom’s pastries and having coffee as a second pairing. It was going to be called “Gaby’s Lovecakes” about 3-3.5 years ago. But we never got around to it. Then a couple years later, life pushed us, and now the two pairings reversed.
Pricing:
- We are slowly bringing more and more!
Contact Info:
- Website: Under construction
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vivracafe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Vivra-Cafe/61587328958775/
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vivra.cafe
