Inspiring Conversations with Kristin Lacy and Vivi Lemus of Convivio Café

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Lacy and Vivi Lemus. They share their story with us below:

The year, 2015. We met at Re:Vision, a local non-profit in West Denver. Kristin had just moved back to the States from Guatemala, working for this non-profit. Vivi (a Guatemalan living in Denver) was volunteering. After saying a few words in Spanish (using Guatemalan slang), it was evident we both shared a love for all things Guate, food, and people.

We instantly connected and planned a few cooking classes and dinners. We invited folks to gather around crowded tables with traditional Central American recipes, shared stories, and lots of Spanglish. We decided – we need a place like this in our city!

Kristin brought her background in coffee retail and agricultural development work with farmers in Guatemala. Vivi provided her skills as a self-taught chef and immigrant rights advocate. We mixed that in with our collective years in the community and food justice work and… ¡listo! Convivio Café started brewing.

A few years went by as it tends to happen; between buying houses, sending kids to college, keeping day jobs, and always cooking and hosting. We reconvened and decided formally to start Convivio in the middle of the Pandemic. Yes, in the middle of all the worldwide uncertainty, we decided to start putting everything into place. We registered our business and formalized agreements with our in-country partners – coffee farmers (Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Colombia). We started selling farmer-roasted coffee in September of 2020. Initially making online sales, pop-ups at different neighborhood markets, slowly growing our customers and supporters; always with a clear vision of being the first women and immigrant-owned, Guatemala inspired, fully bilingual café serving farmer-roasted coffee in Denver.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Let’s start by briefly talking about how hard it is to find capital to start a small business. We started Convivio Café while working full-time jobs, getting our savings together, and putting back into Convivio every dime made. Our dream and vision to open this welcoming, inclusive space while supporting farmers has been very clear from day one. One of our first challenges was finding the ideal spot for our brick-and-mortar, and then working on everything needed to get there: getting architectural drawings, construction bids, and lending in place. Discovering our initial dream location was too high of a financial risk. Being devastated but certain that we needed to wait for a financially smarter option.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Convivio Café?
We are a women-and-immigrant-owned, fully bilingual, Guatemalan-inspired café. In Guatemala, a ‘Convivio’ is a get-together where all are welcome. We want to bring a warm, inclusive, and welcoming space to Denver: no matter where you’re from, you’re invited to our Convivio.

We believe in the beauty of honoring the cultivation and craft needed to bring us the food and drink we love. We do this by selling beyond-fair trade, farmer-roasted coffee, and unique artisanal blend teas. The model for our coffee and tea is one where the supply chain shortens and more of the value stays with the farmers, who in a traditional supply chain, stay with most of the risk and very little profit, since most of the profit tends to stay in the consuming country, instead of the producing one.

Our in-country partners for farmer-roasted coffee are in Guatemala (Gento Coffee), and Nicaragua and Colombia (Vega Coffee). Our tea partner is a Mayan women-owned cooperative, Love &Tea in the highlands of Guatemala.

Our café will give you a taste of traditional Guatemalan pastries and snacks, fresh juices, and delicious coffee drinks.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
First of all, meeting! Two very distinct women, born in different countries with a contrasting background, met in the Mile High City – with the longing for a place of connection and gathering.

Then, getting a call from a Chef friend who’s asking if we’d be interested in looking at a space on 38th and Yates. He asked if we had found a physical space and told us that there was potential interest in inviting Convivio to join a shared building with two other businesses. The phone call took place two days after we had decided to walk away from what we thought was our dream location. We attended this meeting with zero expectations and were still saddened from what we thought was a devastating decision. And, as we stepped into the space and immediately fell in love with it, immediately started the process for a buildout – with architectural drawings, a signed lease, and documents submitted to the city to begin our buildout.

It has been a long time coming, but today we could not be here without the help of our community lenders and local financing partners and the 70+ Mainvest Campaign investors that have allowed us to go further into opening our Convivio Café.

Contact Info:

• Email: conviviocolorado@gmail.com
• Website: www.conviviocafe.com
• Instagram: @convivio_cafe_co
• Facebook: @convivio.cafe.co

Image Credits
Noah Thomas