Before the Bar Opened: How I Built My First Café in Manhattan
I came to New York in 2008 to become a Broadway producer. While working in cafés and delis to support that dream, I discovered how much I loved coffee and began thinking about opening a café of my own. But I couldn’t afford to lease and build out a space in Manhattan.
Then I noticed something: neighborhood bars were sitting empty during the day.
I started approaching bar owners with a proposal. Let me serve coffee in your space in the morning and early afternoon, and we can share the earnings instead of charging fixed rent. After repeated rejections, one partnership made it possible to open my first café in Midtown Manhattan in 2013.
In this session, I’ll share my journey from running my first café to supplying coffee to other cafés and bakeries, advising café owners, and launching Semicolon Café. We’ll explore how I found opportunities in overlooked spaces, gave potential partners a reason to take a chance on me, and applied what I learned to help other cafés improve their businesses.
I’ll also discuss the setbacks, partnership challenges, and decisions I’m still working through as the business grows. For anyone wondering whether they have enough money, connections, or experience to begin, this session offers a firsthand account of finding a workable starting point.
This casual, conversational 50-minute session is planned to include roughly 20–30 minutes of presentation with a brief audience reflection, leaving the remaining time for questions and open discussion. Participants will be invited to identify one underused resource or potential partnership that could help them take their own next step.
How should the session run?
Presentation
Preferred language
Korean
Who is this for?
Aspiring and early-stage founders who have an idea but feel held back by limited capital, a small network, or uncertainty about where to start. Especially relevant to immigrants building a business in the U.S., people considering a career change, and independent café or food business owners exploring their next step.
Why the host can lead this
I opened my first café in Midtown Manhattan in 2013 by partnering with a bar owner to use the space during the day and share the earnings. Since then, I’ve built The Three Chords, launched Semicolon Café, and worked with café owners on coffee supply, operations, and branding. These experiences allow me to share practical lessons about starting with limited resources, negotiating partnerships, and learning through setbacks. I can discuss both the decisions that helped the business grow and the challenges I’m still working through as a founder.
What you will take away
- A practical way to identify underused spaces, resources, and capabilities that could become a starting point for a business. - How to frame a partnership proposal around what each side contributes and gains. - Lessons from using shared space and shared earnings to make a first café possible. - Questions to consider when choosing partners, building trust, and deciding how to grow. - One potential resource, partner, or small experiment to explore for their own next step.
