Meet Wallflower Cafe | Local mobile coffee bar

We had the good fortune of connecting with Wallflower Cafe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Wallflower Cafe, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
It has definitely become a very calculated and precise balance when it comes to our work and personal life. We both have our full time jobs, as well as our families and extracurriculars we enjoy doing. Although this is our passion, it still requires extensive management and time. We find that the balance tends to lean more towards the cafe. We’re still trying to even that out. Even when we just go out to eat, we’re still brainstorming new recipes or ordering supplies. We learned a lot along the way because there are other factors we never considered like marketing, prepping, and networking, but we still wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Sandy is a registered nurse and Danny works in the non-profit industry, but the cafe started way before that. We actually met working in the restaurant/customer service industry and continued to work in it for many years while we got our careers in order. Our curiosity, open mindedness, and love for indulgence really helped us mold our palettes and go out to find new influences to truly set us apart. We love trying new flavors or getting creative with classic lattes by pushing our boundaries of what we know, but what we love more than that is the opportunity to meet new people. The same people who come to us and ask us what’s new, we get to reciprocate. We learn that they are engaged, visiting their family for the holidays, or that they even passed the test they were studying so hard for. People supporting people is the core value that Wallflower Cafe follows because we can only uplift in this industry and in our community.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Our ideal itinerary would include:

Breakfast/lunch at these spots:
Picaresca Barra de Cafe (Boyle Heights)
Laveta (Filipinotown)
All Day Baby (if they were still open)
Eggs’n’Toast (West Covina farmers market)

Lunch/dinner eats would be:
Prince St. Pizza (Arts District)
Banh Mi My Tho (Alhambra)
Moo’s Craft BBQ (Lincoln Heights)
The Heights Sandwich shop (Lincoln Heights)
Chispi Modern Cocina (a local food pop-up)

A nice dinner/night out would include:
Everson Royce Bar (for their burgers and drinks in LA Arts District)
Death and Co bar (Arts District)
In-N-Out
La Tavolata (Cerritos)
Catania (La Jolla)

And finally, activities would include:
Farmers markets(Atwater, Hollywood, East LA)
Coffee shop crawl
Stand up comedy shows
Museums (The Broad, LACMA)
To a show in a small intimate venue (The Lodge Room or The Smell)
Huntington Garden
Roller skating at Moonlight Rollerway

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Luis Moreno, from Mobar Coffee in Montebello, continues to be a huge mentor for us. He not only lent us an espresso machine, grinder, and tools he had, he has constantly visited us at our pop-up events, offered advice from his own experiences, and let us shadow him to learn from his craft. There have even been times where, for example, we’ve forgotten to bring a bag of ice or even espresso beans. He would personally rush out and deliver some from his store!

We’d also love to give a special thank you to Maribel Valdez and Edward Chang from In the Making. They are a nonprofit that has gone above and beyond to help us to be who we are. Our favorite story to tell is when Maribel asked Danny, ”What do you wanna do??” And he responded with, “I wanna open a cafe..” Maribel was quick to respond with, “Be careful what you ask for. I’m gonna manifest that for you!” And just a few months later, In The Making was hosting our grand opening! Even now, they support us by hosting and inviting us to many events. We wouldn’t be where we are without the support of these amazing people.

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