Today we’d like to introduce you to Armando Raymundo Vasquez.
Hi Armando, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Armando and Mike
Armando and Mike started Anchor Island Coffee in September 2019, finally opening the doors the public March 2020.
Starting Anchor Island Coffee
Mike grew up 3 hours from Mexico’s ocean, and 5 hours from California beaches. Most weekends were spent at the beach.
Armando grew up in Guatemala, a much more tropical climate than Kansas City and surrounded by ocean on both sides.
Both working full time jobs in Kansas City, we wanted to start something we could call our own, and at the same time, bring a taste of the tropical climates we reminisce about.
When we first started looking for space to open our coffee shop, we started in Johnson County where we shared an apartment with roommates. Most of Johnson County is a hard working community surrounded by large corporate chains and until recently, the working class had not been able to participate in the local coffee scene south of 95th Street. We wanted to change that.
We quickly learned that commercial real estate in Johnson County is far out of reach for anyone wanting to open a new business without deep pockets or at least deep connections. As a possible location, we had contacted the landlord of the new Snooze location on 135th St in Overland Park, the landlord started screaming at us, literally screaming, stating he already has a coffee place in the parking lot (Panera Bread) and there was absolutely no way he would allow another coffee place to open. Our guess, Snooze was allowed in since they don’t sell coffee or breakfast foods, oh wait, that’s their entire menu. Nothing against Snooze, it’s a great place to stop for a morning mimosa and breakfast.
As a mixed race Latino LGBT couple, we were not finding the support needed to move forward in JoCo. With that in mind, combined with lack of large amounts of cash on hand, we started looking in Crossroads District in hopes for a better opportunity. We found the perfect place on Main St , but the developer wanted at least $100,000 on hand, not including any loans, before even considering doing business with us.
Without big name investors or a trust fund to our name, we headed to Troost Ave in the Manheim Garden Neighborhood where we have been welcomed with open arms. In October 2019, we quickly signed our lease at 4101 Troost Ave KCMO and started building Kansas City’s first tropical themed coffee shop. A trend that has been quickly followed by both Hi Tides coffee and now Outta the Blue Cafe since our March 2020 opening.
Right now have six full-time employees plus the two of us as owners. We’re proudly serving Broadway Roasting Co, they have been our main roaster for about 5 years now. We have two floors, we do host small business pop ups (free of charge) on weekends as a way to give back to our community. We are about to add an event space next door as an addition to our two floors. We’re excited about this expansion because that will help us host bigger events in the future without interrupting the flow of our shop.
We’re open 7 days a week until 3pm.
More information about us can be found at anchorisland.com.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
After surviving COVID we went through a few break ins, a car crash into our shop costing us about $40,000 luckily we are able to reopen with the community’s help & about 5 more break ins where a lot of other shops were affected as well. Definitely not a smooth but we’re still here serving our community. Sales having down because everything is very expensive now, us having a single shop makes more difficult to negotiate because we don’t have buying power as someone who has multiple shops.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I co-own Anchor Island Coffee along with Mike, located on 4101 Troost Ave Kansas City Missouri. We’re a specialty coffee shop focused on servicing our community by providing good quality coffee while building community. We’re also very known for our made to order breakfast burritos, bagels, homemade tamales, along with other dishes such as chilaquiles, Monte Christo just to name a few. What sets us apart from other is the way we focus on creating a connection between customers and our team, we’re not just providing a service but we’re also making our customers feel like family when they visit us. We do focus on a cleaner menu, as little preservatives as possible, no soy, no msg, our goal is to create very unique dishes & make them as fresh as possible. We are surrounded by a lot of fast food places and we’re trying to separate ourselves from that and focusing on cleaner foods.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Our friendly staff, made to order breakfast burritos, homemade tamales & our unique tropical drinks, like our horchata caffe which our house made horchata, 2 oz espresso & your choice of milk (dairy free option available). We also have blueberry caffe, coconut caffe, they’re both served with a 2 oz espresso & your choice of milk, our most pop drink now is the golden coast which it consists in a double espresso, honey, Malden sea salt all shaken together & topped with oat milk.
Pricing:
- 1-20
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Anchorisland.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anchorislandcoffee
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1FQx6dXEE2/
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/anchor-island-coffee-kansas-city
