San Jose’s local coffee shop Nirvana Soul celebrated its two-year anniversary Saturday, brewing up a celebration of community, sweet treats and a whole ‘latte’ love on First Street in Downtown San Jose.
The Black and woman-owned coffee shop was founded by sisters Jeronica Macey and Be’Anka Ashaolu in 2020 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
For the sisters, coffee has always been a source of comfort and community, drinking it before school while talking with their great grandmother and siblings.
“That's something that stays with you, you know, it's like over a cup of coffee is the start of your day, you're sitting together baking bread,” Macey said during the anniversary event. “There's no other better feeling than that.”
The heart of Nirvana Soul is not only its aromatic coffee and tea blends, but also connecting with and supporting other San Jose small businesses.
The sisters have made it their mission to support and share the spotlight with other vendors, 15 of which lined First Street just outside the main doors of Nirvana Soul.
“We just want to go where we feel like we're needed and we hope to bring communities together and have fun together,” Macey said. “I love meeting new people and we just want to make sure that we're bringing a lot of joy to [the] community.”
Macey and Ashaolu reached out to the vendors, many of whom were regular customers of the shop.
Some vendors returned from last year's celebration including Sarah Burrell, owner of Quaint Keystones Co., which sells handmade candles and wax melts online.
Burrell said she is a regular customer at Nirvana Soul and reached out after she heard from Macey and Asholu that they were searching for pop-up vendors for the first anniversary in 2021.
“It's been an honor to be re-invited to something so special because as a business owner, I know how [important] it is to celebrate a year,” Burrell said. “A lot of times as a business owner, you feel when you're starting at first you feel like, 'will anyone like it? Will anyone support it?' so when there's a business that does that as they're still continuing to grow and they're reaching out, I think you become a stronger business as well.”
Breanna Ross, the owner of Elahni Candles and frequent Nirvana Soul customer, also sold her handmade soy candles at the event.
Ross said Macey connected with her about being a vendor for this year’s anniversary after finding out about her business.
She said she’s appreciative toward the Nirvana Soul owners for opening their hearts to the community, artists and other small and Black-owned businesses.
“It's hard to start your business and so they've definitely been an inspiration and just the team has been great, super welcoming and supportive of [my] business,” Ross said.
Several giveaways were announced through social media and started the celebration of the anniversary a week prior to the event on Sept. 24.
The winners of the giveaway received coffee blends and merchandise in collaboration with SPiFF PASSÉ, a local clothing brand.
The two winners, one for each year, were announced on social media platforms.
Five months before its two-year anniversary, Nirvana Soul opened its second location in Cupertino.
Macey said while she has dreams of opening 20 stores, she never would have believed that she and Ashaolu would have two locations by their second year in business.
"Wherever the vibe leads us, it's important for us to be seen in neighborhoods that you usually wouldn't see Black or brown people,” Macey said. “It just feels right. We want to be able to reach everybody, you know, because everyone drinks coffee."
