Angela Yee’s friends thought she was nuts for opening a coffee shop amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic — but she said it’s been worth the risk.
“A lot of my friends told me it wasn’t a good idea to open up a coffee shop because there were so many businesses shutting down,” the host of “The Breakfast Club” — whose shop, Coffee Uplifts People (CUP), is in Brooklyn — told Page Six recently, adding that many of her pals called her “crazy.”
Yee explained that she had already started the coffee company from her home during quarantine and thought opening a store made more sense than hiring a marketing company and paying them.
And so far, paying rent on a physical location has paid off.
“I also feel like, unfortunately, when there’s disasters for people, there’s always opportunity for other people,” she told us. “So it’s just a matter of time to find those opportunities and figure out how to make it work and you got to take risk sometimes.”
She added, “The worst-case scenario, I always tell people, is that if it does not work, you have to figure it out. So I’d rather try than not try.”
Yee — who also owns a juice bar in Brooklyn — is already looking toward the future, telling us she is hoping to open a restaurant or lounge next.
“I always dreamed about it, but my own coffee shop is kind of like a lounge, so I feel like that’s the first step. Hopefully, I will be able to get a liquor license and who knows what can happen from there.”
