Today we’d like to introduce you to Thanh-Thanh Dang.
Hi Thanh-Thanh, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Banana Dang was born in Rincon, Puerto Rico before we relocated to Oceanside, Cali. Back on the island, we served Puerto Rican coffee and organic bananas in all our smoothies. We grew bananas in our backyard, and our coffee was sourced only 2-hours away. We are “bananas” about coffee and love the camaraderie that happens when people get together to drink coffee. We blend coffee in our banana smoothies. We serve banana lattes, mochas, and Dirty Banana Mylk. The practice of pairing bananas with coffee is a love story in cocktail heaven.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
At our first shop in Rincon, Puerto Rico – challenges we faced were weak infrastructure, like water and power going out all the time. This made it a challenge to run a cafe. In Oceanside, the locals really embrace coffee. Although there are tons of coffee shops, we feel each one has its own unique personality and we all seem to be doing well as a coffee community that supports each other.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At Banana Dang, there are certain things we get excited about—espresso, fresh coffee, and banana smoothies. Aside from Dang being my last name, coffee is my first love. Bananas are the world’s most perfect fruit. Our intention at Banana Dang is to creatively showcase the bean and make espresso taste good no matter what form it takes—with milk, over ice, with chocolate, etc. We marry the bean and the banana in almost all our products – from smoothies, specialty coffee drinks to our toast offerings. We even came out with our own soy wax candle infused with coffee and bananas. These are just a few of the combinations that work. We are rapidly expanding our merchandise as well. Banana Dang pajama pants coming soon!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
All entrepreneurs are risk takers. That’s just the DNA of being your own boss. Banana Dang is opening a new shop in Westchester County, NY in Spring 2022. We are housed inside an art museum called KinoSaito. It is especially challenging to run a shop out of state, but with Zoom technology we feel it is possible to train, manage and even troubleshoot from afar.
Contact Info:
- Email: bananadang@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.bananadang.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bananadangcoffee/
- Facebook: @BananaDang
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/BananaDang
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BananaDang
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/banana-dang-coffee-oceanside-4
