The Coffee Shop Owner Calling Out Gentrification in Brooklyn – The Cut

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Successful women talk about managing their careers, and their lives.

Successful women talk about managing their careers, and their lives.
On February 25, Rachel Nieves filmed a TikTok in her car that would change her life. With tears in her eyes, Nieves explained that her landlord was raising the rent on her business, Buddies Coffee, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and that a competitor was also moving in right next door. “Today, I just got word that I might not be able to stay in the same lease because of the rent increase, which is the reality for so many people,” Nieves says in the video. “But not only that. Right next door to me, they’re putting in a coffee shop. It just feels like you can’t win. The small people can’t win.”Nieves’s video went viral overnight. It caught the attention of Joe Jonas, who visited Buddies and encouraged his followers to support it as well. Speaking out against the forces that have gentrified this historically Puerto Rican neighborhood in recent years clearly struck a chord: For days after posting, Nieves opened the shop to a massive line of people, mostly Boricuas, who danced and sang to salsa and Bad Bunny as they waited. “Growing up in New York, Williamsburg has been changed since I’ve been allowed to hang out on my own,” Nieves says. She and her co-owner and partner, Taylor Nawrocki, had initially been hesitant to open their business in the neighborhood — first as a cart in 2020, and later as a small brick-and-mortar store on Grand Street — because they didn’t want to inadvertently contribute to the harms of gentrification in the area. To her relief, neighbors welcomed the shop and its proud Puerto Rican roots.As a burned-out former finance manager in the car business, Nieves didn’t know anything about coffee before falling headfirst into starting her business. But she did know what she liked to drink and taught herself the rest. “I can figure it out,” she says she told herself. And she still is — while Nieves and Nawrocki got the keys to a second location in Manhattan days before they learned of their rent increase, with the help of their supportive community, they’re also looking for another space to stay open in the neighborhood. Nieves lives with Nawrocki in Brooklyn; here’s how she gets it done.On her morning routine:My best mornings are when I’m up and showered and ready before Taylor even gets up, so that we’re not dancing around each other. Then I feel like I can take on the day. Sometimes my getting ready consists of me grabbing the hoodie that I threw on the floor. That’s the reality. I just need to feel clean before I leave the house. I also need to do my skin care. If I don’t sit and do my skin care, I lose it.On what inspired her to open Buddies:I never knew that I wanted to open a coffee shop. I just knew that I wanted to connect with people, and I wanted to work for myself. I had quit my job during COVID, and I was burned out. I figured, Well, I’ll never be this young again. If I make a mistake now, it’s okay, because I tried something and I’ve never really risked anything before. Taylor had this idea, he’s like, “I had a dream that we were running a coffee cart and the cart was made out of skateboards,” and I was like, “Sure, let’s see where this takes us.” I was always so calculated before I would make any decision. This was the first time in my life where I kind of just went with the flow.On her relationship with money:My father always told me to respect money. I didn’t know what that meant, I just respect it. Both my parents are very much in my life, but essentially I grew up with just my mom. I watched what the 2008 stock-market crash did to her. The idea of money has always scared me, because it can give you this stability, but then one day it can all go away and everything can change. I just know that my bills are paid. I’m saving some money, and I’m doing all right. That’s true to my core, that’s where I’m at. I’m learning to get more comfortable with it.On getting the shop off the ground:I had about $10,000 left in my bank account when we started Buddies. Of that, we spent $7,000 on an espresso machine. I was afraid to take out loans. I’m afraid of credit cards. I wasn’t really taught how to properly use my finances. Even when I worked in the car business, I only had a debit card. So I was like, If we’re going to do this, I’m just paying cash. I’d rather have $0 to my name and work to try to earn this back up. So we started off with an espresso machine that was way beyond our budget, but I liked how it looked. I spent a couple hundred dollars on a roasting course, and the material was all free because it was skateboards. I was so scared. I was like, What did I just do?On her first big break:One day, someone came in and ordered a mocha or something. What we didn’t know was that he worked for Nike. He found us as a coffee cart and he’s like, “I like these two, like they’re pretty chill.” A few months later, we got an email from him. In September 2021, we set up in front of what’s now the Nike store in Williamsburg. We were just paid to give out free coffee to the first 200 people. It was a lot of work, but because of that deal, we were able to make some money, like a thousand dollars a day. But after day two, the toll that it took on me and the product that we were going through … I put my big-girl pants on and said, “I’m going to send a risky email and I’m going to tell the client either we can’t do the next two days, or can we please discuss renegotiation.” And no questions asked, they doubled the rate. In that moment I was like, “You know what? A closed mouth does not get fed.”On the worst advice she’s gotten:There’s a lot of weird advice, but what sticks with me is always about pricing. Obviously, the price of goods increases. But just because I can sell a cup of coffee for $10 doesn’t mean I should. If I advertise a $10 cup of coffee, what that shows the people from this neighborhood is that this place is not for you. I know the people that are from here that are used to paying $2 at the bodega. They feel welcome to come in here and just throw $3 on the counter with no exchange, don’t even ask me what it costs. That makes me feel happy.On gentrification:I didn’t realize gentrification was going on around me as a little girl. My parents have raised me telling the same stories, “Oh, this used to be this guy’s place; we used to go hang out here; oh, wow, that’s a Duane Reade now.” These are the conversations that I’m sure every native New Yorker experiences with their parents. It’s so normalized. I would roll my eyes at all those conversations, but now, I get it. I’m living it. Every time you try to make some roots in a community, someone bigger and more powerful, with way more money, can just crush you. And it doesn’t mean anything to them. I felt like just another store, where the conversation around it would be, “Oh, Buddies used to be there.” It broke me. In my mind I’m like, Well, I’m still here, I want to still do it.On going viral:Sitting in the roastery today and hearing the coffee beans, it’s the first day I haven’t felt very stressed. To know that so many people want to support Buddies, and maybe they see a daughter in me or they see themselves in me … It just feels so comforting, knowing that so many people have felt what I felt but didn’t know how to express it. It amazed me what sharing pain and fear did, it has brought a community together. It made me think, Imagine how strong we would be as a community, if all of us were just more open about the struggles that we go through.On what comes next:A lot has changed, essentially overnight. The community has rallied together to help us find a bigger spot. A lot of Puerto Ricans have come through and they’re like, “We own this building here, do you want to come see it next week?” I don’t know what’s going to happen. I think that God or the universe knew that I had signed another space already, because Taylor and I had dreams of having two spaces. So we thought, let’s just close down Buddies Williamsburg, and we’ll focus all of our energy on the one in the city. But now, since everyone in the neighborhood has rallied together, they’re like, “You’re not going anywhere.” They’ve been looking for spaces for us to stay. So there’s a lot on the table.But even if the landlord, because of all the media and all the noise on the block, decides to say, “Oh, I was never going to do that” — I would still say no and walk away from this space, because it took that for you to see me as a human and what I brought to the community. I just want to bring Buddies to where they want us, and where I’m embraced with love and acceptance.By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commissionHave an account?

Source: http://www.thecut.com/article/how-buddies-coffee-owner-rachel-nieves-gets-it-done.html