Tí: Cafe Ta Kicks Off a Month of Anime Specials

During the month that many of us are choosing costumes, reflecting on our favorite characters and stories and feeling that sweet tooth more than usual, there’s one Denver cafe that brings all of those October and fall joys together in a one-of-a-kind, richly detailed way: Tí Cafe's Anime Month, when it will offer rotating special items from October 7 to November 3.

The Vietnamese cafe, located at 30 Broadway, was opened by sisters Sashaline, Shominic and Shasitie Nguyen in 2021. We talked with them about Anime Month and why it means so much to them:

Westword: How did Tí: Cafe Ta come to be?

The Nguyens: Representation and a need to feel seen was our biggest inspiration in opening Tí: Cafe. As creatives with strong personalities and a heavy entrepreneurial influence from our parents, we always knew we wanted to start our own business, and growing up in Denver all our lives while never quite feeling that sense of “home” made this path feel almost like a responsibility on our end: to take matters into our own hands and push for more cultural diversity in Denver.

With Vietnam being the number-one producer of robusta beans and the second-largest coffee exporter in the world, it was shocking knowing that Vietnamese coffee was rarely sold anywhere outside of pho restaurants, let alone at Vietnamese-centric coffee shops specializing in handcrafted Vietnamese coffee.

We feel that our paths naturally led us to be a part of something that could elevate both Vietnamese and Asian American culture while being an outlet for creativity, expression and our love for community.

How did Anime Month come about? What was going on at the cafe that inspired it?

As huge nerds and fans of the medium ourselves, Tí: Cafe’s Anime Week was born from a self-indulgent desire to celebrate our love for anime with like-minded individuals, allowing us the opportunity to creatively express that passion toward a shared interest that, as ’90s kids, we were never comfortable flaunting.

In recent years, anime has reached new heights in becoming globally accepted and normalized — a phenomenon that differed from the way society viewed it back when we were growing up. Yet as much as anime has grown, we felt that Denver still lacked those spaces for the community to gather outside of the few conventions held throughout the year.

Seizing that opportunity just like we did when we opened Tí, we took matters into our own hands and set out to curate a safe space for the community that nurtured that unabashed love and excitement for anime, but in a more casual setting, surrounded by people who understand you. Coffee brings people together (even better if it’s anime-themed coffee), and really, our anime events are just a poorly disguised excuse to nerd out alongside fellow fans.

How did you get into anime?

We all have different, treasured starting points and touchstones into the genre. In our very early childhood, some of the first anime we were exposed to were Pokémon and Digimon, which definitely inspired us to be adventurous and explore, furthering our imagination and creativity and teaching/motivating us in ways that Barney and Elmo also did.

Shominic, Tí: Cafe creative director: Any and all of the anime I first watched growing up became the sole motivator and reason for the artist that I am today — I would have never picked up a pencil and began drawing as a hobby if it weren’t for shows like Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Yu-Gi-Oh, Full Metal Alchemist, Wolf’s Rain, etc. I am now a digital illustrator and designer because of those interests rooted in anime.
What does Anime Month signify, or mean at a deeper level, for the city of Denver?

Our anime events are precious to us because they offer a temporary place of escape from the stresses of life that your Denver bars or concert venues won’t, especially for those who don’t drink or party — the in-between group that enjoys staying in with a good anime to binge but also enjoys touching grass in short bursts at a time, something we feel Denver could use more of.

We feel our anime events unite all kinds of people under a common interest while giving us the opportunity to introduce Southeast Asian/Vietnamese flavors and ultimately bring more cultural diversity to the area. Denver is full of nerds, gamers, hobbyists, creatives (including the entire team at Tí: Cafe), and we think our city deserves more events of that kind.

Beyond the consumer experience, we strive to use our anime events as a means to support, promote and spotlight local small businesses and value Anime Month as a collaborative effort within our food community. It gives businesses the creative expression to think outside the box from our usual daily operations while being able to mutually uplift and inspire one another along our respective journeys. In a sense, we like to think of Anime Month as a showcase for all the amazing local businesses worth supporting. We’re all doing incredible things, and we believe that deserves its applause.
Do you feel Anime Month has or could have an educational effect on consumers? If so, what are you most excited to educate guests about, or hope they go and educate themselves on afterward?

Absolutely! With Anime Month being a celebration of creative, individual expression from both our team and the local businesses we collaborate with, we use this event as an opportunity to test new flavors and ingredients that could potentially be added onto our permanent menu based on the demand. These new flavors and pairings help to introduce concepts that a lot of Denverites would not otherwise be exposed to, which is something we value most in our business even beyond events, serving as the starting point in conversation about the brewing process of specialty Vietnamese coffee or what interesting flavor notes best complement matcha, etc.

Those are the kind of discussions we value having when welcoming new faces. Anime Month allows us to reach more people, and reaching more people means being able to educate more on the culture, even if that’s through exposure alone. Furthermore, holding more interest-specific events as an Asian-owned business pushes areas to diversify and see the demand it has on audiences, which can aid in a city’s cultural diversity and development.

By supporting these events, we are opening doors for growth and opportunity within the Asian community, and we always encourage the consumer to support and explore local. Tí: Cafe’s Anime Month is only one of many Asian-influenced events alongside numerous other events in the AANHPI community that also deserve their spotlight: Mile High Asian Food Week, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival at the Far East Center, and more.

What are the misconceptions new customers might bring into your space or the community in regard to Anime Month? How can people enter your space in a way that makes all feel welcome? How can customers practice anti-racism by supporting this event and your business?

If there’s one thing we had to mention, it’s the assumption that an Asian-owned drink business serving “milk tea” or any other Asian-inspired drinks automatically means that they serve boba, when in fact, boba shop menus can differ greatly from that of Asian tea shops or cafes.

I think it’s important for the consumer to understand that milk tea is the general identifier for any tea-based beverage that contains milk, while boba is usually an added topping and refers to “tapioca pearls,” not the beverage itself. Oftentimes a customer is forced to walk away disappointed from a situation that was out of our control because of a misunderstanding that could have been avoided with a bit more research.

One other misconception is the idea that “modern” invalidates the authenticity of an establishment and sets the bar for harsher expectations. For example, Sắp Sửa not serving their food with chopsticks doesn’t make the food inauthentic or less “Vietnamese," and we believe that this idea is more harmful than not to the cultural diversity of Asian businesses in growing areas.

On a general note, we are grateful to have curated a welcoming, open-minded community at Tí: Cafe, where curiosity precedes prejudice, which allows for a more intimate, conversational interaction at the register. We appreciate customers entering already with an open mind, even if that means stumbling in with zero knowledge of the culture. That openness to learn has gone a long way in making our space feel safe, which is something needed going into Anime Month. We acknowledge that this isn’t always the case, but the number of antagonistic interactions we’ve experienced are (thankfully) very few and far between.

What’s your favorite anime and drink during Anime week, and why?

Shasitie: The Chopper Affogato (One Piece) — I love the maple cinnamon ice cream from our collaboration with Sweet Action paired with our robust espresso topped with pretzel antlers. My favorite anime from the lineup is Spirited Away.

Sashaline: The Moon Prism Power Lychee Soda (a Sailor Scout-themed lychee cream soda with jelly). Sailor Moon is my favorite anime and one that I grew up loving and watching, and lychee soda is one of my favorites even on our general menu.

Shominic: The Gojo-themed coconut kem drink (Jujutsu Kaisen, coconut water, butterfly pea tea and kem). It's a very aesthetic drink while being delicious and refreshing. Chainsaw Man is my current favorite from the new-gen titles, alongside Jujutsu Kaisen.

Tí: Cafe is located at 30 Broadway and is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Anime month runs from Monday, October 7, to Sunday, November 3. For more information, visit ti.cafe.