Black Business Month Profile: LaTanya Smith Opened Her Brand New Café Amid Full Force of Pandemic, But Found Her Footing

Apart from café staples like breakfast sandwiches, smoothies and waffles, My Place Café on Los Robles Avenue claims uniqueness in the sense it sells coffee that is sourced directly from a Tanzania coffee co-op run by a member of hometown hero Jackie Robinson’s family.

The youngest son of Jackie and Rachel Robinson, David Robinson runs Sweet Unity Farms coffee co-op, located in a remote corner of southwestern Tanzania. The 300-farm coffee cooperative is farmer owned and operated and gives small-scale farmers access to the international coffee market.

Teacher-turned-café owner of My Place Café, LaTanya Smith said her café sources beans directly from Robinson’s Unity Farms Co-op in Tanzania. 

Opening During the Pandemic 

Opening at the onset of the pandemic in January 2020, Smith said she faced severe challenges, including sharp declines in revenue and supply issues. But thanks to word-of-mouth publicity and a steady stream of regulars, the café is slowly but surely growing. 

“[I faced] all of the challenges!  Not really being known, being a brand new business and all of the supply chain demand. We didn’t really have a lot of things … so I had to make something out of nothing,” she told Pasadena Now, as she recounted that her café was forced to close for four months and change operations in order to survive.

When her business was hit by the pandemic, Smith said it was difficult to secure grants because the café was just starting. 

The situation forced her to go back to teaching while managing My Place Café so she could pay for her staff.

“I just had to go back to teaching part time so that I could bring money into the café. And that was how we managed.” 

As months went by and COVID restrictions eased, Smith said My Place Café’s operations have started to pick up. 

She reconnected with the café’s regulars and distributed flyers in the neighborhood so people would learn more about what the café offers. 

Maximizing the use of the café’s outdoor space so everyone dining in would feel safer and offering more to-go items on the menu also helped it survive. 

“We always had bagels and pastries and things like that. But during the pandemic, the waffles and the breakfast sandwich definitely took more popularity. And that is what increased our revenue because of the sale of those sandwiches.” 

Background

Smith is the third owner of the café, which was previously named Sidewalk Café. Before acquiring it, she had an experience working for the café as a volunteer. 

Eventually, the previous owner offered her the café and so she bought it and changed the name to My Place Café .

“The reason that I went to volunteer was because my church, which is Fellowship Monrovia, wanted to have a coffee cart and wanted me to learn some things about the coffee so that we could have a coffee cart for the church. And basically that is how I got to the café. And it just grew into a great relationship.”

Despite making progress, Smith couldn’t say her business, along with other Black-owned businesses in the city, were thriving. 

“I think that we are still all struggling,” she said. “It is a huge recession and it’s having a huge impact.” 

Smith also mentioned the difficulty of keeping up with Pasadena’s high tax rates and expensive rent among the challenges currently impacting Black-owned businesses in the city.

“The taxes in Pasadena are some of the most expensive,” she said. “This tax really does impact buying things in Pasadena because it’s more expensive than going even over to Burbank or Glendale because their taxes are not as expensive as ours.” 

For more information regarding My Place Café, visit: https://myplacecafé.net