KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cafe Cà Phê hopes to bring more visibility to Asian Americans in Kansas City.
After two years of operating the coffee shop on wheels, Jackie Nguyen opened a brick-and-mortar store in Columbus Park.
“We’ve worked on this for two whole years, we’ve been building this brick and mortar for one year. It’s been very exciting but also just like very honored,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen has dedicated the last few years of her life to expanding the Asian and Asian American narratives in the metro. As a first-generation Vietnamese American, she felt it was hard to find community when she first moved to the region during the pandemic.
“I felt like there wasn’t really anyone speaking up for us, and so I kind of just did it because no one else was,” Nguyen said. “It felt like we were kind of disappearing and just forgotten about — and it still kind of continues.”
She says Asians and Asian Americans have been historically silenced and overlooked in the Kansas City area by the city and its people. Opening Cafe Cà Phê was one of the ways she tried to create a welcoming space where Asian narratives can expand.
“Asians that come here, they just want to survive. That was their main priority, so they just continued to work and tried not to stir up too much trouble or anything, and I think that that has contributed to the lack of visibility and awareness,” she said. “Even this year, celebrating AAPI Month was an afterthought, which was really sad to us.”
Chi Nguyen, a regular customer and friend of the owner, says she defines visibility as “seeing people that look like you in places where decisions are made.” She has only lived in the metro for three years but already feels the effect of the lack of diversity.
“I live in Prairie Village, and there is hardly any diversity there," Chi Nguyen said. "I have to go out and look for it. So I think this is super important for not just the Vietnamese community but all of the Asian community to see other people who look like them be successful."
Both Jackie and Chi Nguyen believe bringing the business to the heart of Columbus Park will help with visibility and awareness in the region. The neighborhood has a large population of Asian immigrants and refugees.
“As much as we need to try and educate and to expand our narrative, we need others to come and to learn and to do their own research and to ask questions,” Jackie Nguyen said.
While the road to success has been anything but easy, never-ending lines of customers are proof of what Nguyen has built.
“We wouldn’t be where we are without the community,” Jackie Nguyen said.
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