Three generations of one Vietnamese American family have opened garage businesses in Sacramento. Grandma and grandpa started selling Vietnamese pork sausages known as cha lua out of their garage upon arriving in Northern California. Then, their children started a very different business, Comtech Computer Systems, and sold hardware to computer companies from their home. Then, the youngest Nguyens followed in their footsteps with a home-based coffee roaster and cafe.
GA.RA is the handiwork of Daniel, Kasmira, and Timothy Nguyen, and its pays direct homage to that family history. Fittingly, “gara” is Vietnamese slang for garage. First debuting in February 2025 out of Daniel’s garage masquerading as a cafe, GA.RA is about to go legit: The Nguyens will debut the physical space for the business at 2424 Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley on Tuesday.
The opening marks the next iteration of an evolving and highly dynamic trend in specialty coffee in the Bay Area: specialty Vietnamese cafes, especially those outside San Jose. Long slept-on, Vietnamese drinks made with the country’s Phin dripper — a metal filter that slowly produces a strong brew — have gained traction in the 2020s. The cafes in the U.S. are also not just for viral-friendly drinks: They’ve overlapped with the resurgence of “third space” culture, especially for young Vietnamese Americans…