“During the pandemic, I collected a lot of chairs …I love American mid-century chairs.”

Before Vinh Le and Duong Huynh opened Cicada Coffee Bar, Vinh arranged the chairs, tables and lamps in a garage, exactly how they’d be in the café. He tested lightbulbs and music, inviting friends over to make sure the vibe was just right before moving the mishmash of carefully restored furniture into the space on Prospect Street.

The couple discussed their opening for nearly an hour before mentioning the food, which, by the way, is wonderful—made from scratch and almost entirely sourced within 45 minutes of Cambridge. They’ve told that story elsewhere. Duong shared that in each conversation with a media outlet they wish to convey a distinct message, to avoid telling the same story twice. They touched on the backstory—Vinh’s beginnings cooking for farm animals and his robust family food culture, their meeting in Vietnam where Duong studied architecture, Vinh’s learning Western cooking at Blue Ginger—but the story they told me was largely about community. And paperwork. If the city of Cambridge wants to encourage small businesses to thrive, they suggested, it must remove the mountains of bureaucracy that stand between hardworking dreamers and a thriving small business community.

Two nights after our conversation, with community support, Cicada successfully presented their case for a beer and wine license to the city, without the help of an attorney. The license will will allow them to serve sumptuous, family-style, full Vietnamese feasts to the city that’s rallied around them.

We chatted at one of just two tables in the the sunny backyard, where they’ve devoted most of the space to a community garden that’s just starting to sprout. Phone use is forbidden. Vinh told me he’d spent 80 percent of his day out there. He believes in the American dream and he perpetuates it by employing immigrants like himself and treating them well. I left feeling hopeful about the future of restaurants if we let earnest, sincere and deliberate industry outsiders create it. And I’ll be first in line for dinner.

-Rachel Caldwell, Special Projects Editor

THE PLAN

Duong: We really started on the journey of opening Cicada last summer. We wanted to open it in July; in August we found space and signed a lease and worked on it between August and the winter when it became ready, and then waited for permits, which led to February. But Cicada originally felt a little bit more like a detour, even though now it feels like the main road. Vinh is my life and business partner, and he’s really the life force behind Cicada. There are three of us businesses partners: me, Vinh and our partner Michael. But really Vinh is the vision. And before Cicada, Vinh had spent really five-ish years soul searching about the food industry because he was professionally trained as an Urban Designer …we changed plans from opening a full-scale restaurant. So Cicada opened February 26, and we’ve been open for 10 weeks now, which feels crazy because it feels very much like it’s a growing adolescent.

THE PIVOT 

Vinh:  I left my job. And then Duong and I went hiking in about July, right? And I told Duong, “Hey, we have plans to open a full restaurant already, but …a coffee shop may be much easier for us.” So we made the decision quickly. And then in the next few days we came back and then I tried to find a spot for Cicada. Because running a coffee shop during the pandemic you don’t need to do a lot of logistical things, much less compared to restaurant and people can take away easily. And I can sell a lot of Vietnamese things.

So I came here and said: The first thing we need to do is the garden. The second thing, we need to move some goods and then furniture. But the most challenging thing, to open a business in the U.S. is much harder than what I thought. It’s not about furniture, it’s not about a garden, it’s not about things, it’s not about food. It’s about paper. It’s about law. It’s about logistics. It’s about regulation. Working with the City of Cambridge makes me so stressed. Everything’s so slow. Everything is so challenging.

Compared with other businesses, we are still lucky. We opened almost on time. But I’m not talking about that. Even though they let us open soon, that doesn't mean they’re doing a good job. I’m not talking for myself, I’m talking for another generation. Other people who want to open their own business here in the future. For example, maybe in 10 years, 20 years, people come here to open their business and they can’t figure it out. They fail.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Duong: So Cambridge also has one of the highest rents, so it ties up people’s money, right? Any regular restaurant you’d go to the rent takes up like ...20, 25% of the place. And then you just think about that when you have no revenue and you have to pay 25% of what you would’ve made for revenue per month, half of your startup budget is on your rent. And before you know it, after three of those times you’re already delayed by 45 days. And that’s 45 days of rent. And you had tightly budgeted. You didn’t have budget for sitting somewhere.

Vinh: I had only $20,000 in my bank account from the beginning when I opened it, and then we still needed to pay the rent. So in the middle, we were broke, no money in our pockets. No money. And I told Duong, “If I cannot make it happen right now, I don't know when I can make it happen.” Luckily we have some friends, angel investors, who helped. But the most challenging thing for me is about understanding the regulation and laws to open a business in the U.S. Because I never dealt with that in my life. It was difficult.

Duong: Because it’s a new business, we weren’t really eligible for a lot of the government stimulus money. So really we did have to rely on rent relief. And we did qualify for a couple of local grants, and that has helped to keep things going, but really we just paid for stuff. We lost money. That was the reality, and we’re just trying to stay optimistic.

Vinh: People were like, “Why do you want to open during the pandemic? Why do you want to open a coffee shop here? It's not worth it because you don’t get a ton of money.” I say, “I invest for the future. And I want Cicada.” Two months later people have gathered together, I’ve shared information and also shared my identity, shared my culture. I have a big motivation to do that. Beyond the money. Right now we have enough, but money is not the main purpose. The main purpose is how to keep me in Cambridge and in the U.S., rather than going back to Vietnam. So, Cicada is the reason I stay here. And it’s worth it. It's hard but it’s worth it because we have a lot of love from community.

THE FUTURE

Duong: I think there are two main points for me. It’s been a year of a lot of challenges. Our team, even now our staff, too, I think we approach the way we do work and create things with a lot more mindfulness. We just had a lot of time to think about what the heck we want to do in life and how we want to live our life. And we also had to learn to communicate with each other a lot more deeply over the course of the pandemic …it was a hard year, so everybody had to deal with their conflicts head-on and I think we’ve learned a lot of skills out of that, which really helped us cope with the challenges of opening the business and carrying out the business thoughtfully. So there’s that aspect. I think the other aspect of it is Vinh’s vision of creating a community and a sense of place, rather than just serving a food or a drink, because we’ve all been craving to get together as a community throughout the course of the pandemic. And so when folks walked in through the door on February 26th, that was the day when people started becoming regulars. Starting the day we opened, people started becoming regulars, and now we have folks who we see their face, know their names, know their dogs’ names…

Vinh: We’ve had more time to reflect about our process …Everything will be fine because the community supports us. The people of Cambridge really support us. And they love it. They love it.

Cicada Coffee Bar
106 Prospect St.
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
cicadacoffeebar@gmail.com

Hours
TUE - SUN: 8 AM - 3 PM

This story appeared as an Online Exclusive in May 2021.