Community Highlights: Meet Alvin Sun of Java Saga

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alvin Sun.

Hi Alvin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My mom, Amy Lee, started vending every year at the local Chinese New Year Festival in Chinatown Shopping Center in Chamblee. She and my grandmother served many meals, including Boba Milk Tea and Taiwanese nuggets. all to help raise donations for an orphanage in Tibet.
toward the end of high school and early college, she had become to busy to attend the festival, however wanted to exit her current career with something new. she mentioned how she’s always wanted to have a cafe some day. so i had an idea. we first started with the food trailer idea to test the market because the cost of entry was the cheapest. the concept’s inception started my senior year at UGA with the layout of the trailer taped on the living room floor of the fraternity house, with brothers standing at each position to see if all of us could fit.
the concept started as coffee only, but with hindsight, we installed fryers just in case we wanted to expand on our chicken recipe.
at various events, we saw how difficult it was to only sell drinks so we added our nuggets and chicken cutlet (JiPai) to our menu.
however, being american, it seemed easier to just put the cutlet in between bread for easier consumption.
after a couple years of trial and error, our base of operations were expanding, so we moved into a bigger commissary where we cut out a hole on the side of the window to turn our kitchen into a literal “hole in the wall” spot. struggled there due to covid19, but still developed a following. finally saw an opportunity to move to buford hwy and we took it. three more years there and we saw another opportunity to open in alpharetta.

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?
the food trailer itself was a struggle since every place we went became a new market on top of being fairly new to the game. focused on repeat film caterings instead of hoping for customers at each event.
we opened at our “hole in the wall” location one month before covid19. unexpected, but luckily due to zero indoor sit down space, we didnt have to shutdown like most restaurants. we just threw up plexiglass over the window and kept going. friends that came on weekends were surprised how busy a little window in a business complex could get. on top of the covid19 struggle was that at the beginning of that store, it was just me and my mother, Amy Lee in the kitchen. mother helped fry the chicken, while i handled everything else. taking orders, making drinks, making the rest of the menu whether it be finishing up the sandwiches or working the grill. it wasnt until later on that we brought on a couple of extra hands from the food truck days to help out with ordering and drink making.
moving to buford hwy was also a struggle initially, bc we were the new kids on the block. only the loyal customers from the old pickup window knew about us then but even so, many still didnt know we had moved and some were still going to the old location. it was ok for only having 2 other staff members. things have smoothed out now once we amped up our marketing and finally brought in more help.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Java Saga?
what started as a coffee movement, has transformed into a taiwanese/american fusion style cafe. we take authenticity very seriously. our five spice powder is a custom blend made in taiwan, that we bring back personally on our flights. also our green tea bags are stuffed into large suitcases that come on the flights with us. we pay the extra baggage fees so the taste of taiwan can fly 8000+ miles to reach our customers. if ingredients are able to be locally sourced from supermarkets, then we will 100% go out of our way to acquire those ingredients.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
if you dont do it now, someone else eventually will. so you can day dream all you want, but nothing will happen if you dont take that first step.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://javasaga.coffee
• Instagram: javasagacoffee
• Facebook: javasagacoffee
• Other: https://javasagacoffee.com