Age: 34
Hometown: Thủ Dầu Một, Vietnam
Current residence: Henrietta
Occupation: Owner and founder, Winter Swan Coffee
In Vietnam, coffee shops eclipse bars as the gathering place of choice. Caffeine flows late, and everyone from freelancers to families is encouraged to stay, work and socialize. Many of the shops have both indoor and outdoor spaces, especially given the warmer climate.
It was this part of her native culture Quynh Bui missed most when she moved to the United States from Vietnam at age 16. Bui’s grandparents and uncles had immigrated to Rochester after the Vietnam War, and her parents later decided to join the family. After completing her last two years of high school at Greece Olympia, Bui enrolled at Rochester Institute of Technology for marketing and management, which led to meeting her husband, Tin Seekaew, and accepting a job at Paychex after graduation.
“Like any immigrant child, I followed what my parents wanted me to do — get a job in the corporate world, climb the ladder, ‘you need stability,’ and all of that,” said Bui. ”I always wanted to have something of my own, but I didn’t have the guts to do it. Rochester still felt strange to me, I didn’t have that connection yet.”
Throughout college and beyond, Bui continued to search for the kind of coffee shop she’d left in Thủ Dầu Một. As an RIT student, Java’s on campus or downtown on Gibbs Street came close.
“In Vietnam, when you say, ‘Hey, you want to go get coffee,’ it’s not just to drink coffee,’” Bui said. “It’s, ‘Hey, I want to meet you, I want to see you, I want to hang out.’ The courtesy of a good coffee shop there is WiFi and plenty of seating. The owners don’t care how long you sit there.”
A few years into her corporate life came the pandemic — a career reset for so many — and the death of her beloved grandparents within a year of each other.
“After that, I didn’t feel fulfilled anymore at my corporate job, even though I loved the people I worked with,” Bui said. “And then it was COVID, and I didn’t feel like I was there for my family.”
Coffee was still at the forefront of her mind. Bui began to experiment more at home, and she and Seekaew — her biggest advocate, who one day in November 2020 walked out of Best Buy with an espresso machine — created a YouTube channel. Still, Bui had never actually worked behind the counter at a shop.
When businesses reopened, she applied at nearly every coffee shop in the city. Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters was the first to give her a chance, and then RoCoCo (in the Mercantile on Main). In May 2022, she launched her own mobile cart: Winter Swan Coffee, a moniker that nods to both the weather in Rochester and Bui’s first latte art design. The small menu was anchored in traditional Vietnamese coffee, which brews dark Robusta beans through a slow-drip phin filter and mixes it with condensed milk.
Tanvi Asher, owner of Shop Peppermint and founder of Themata (The Market at the Armory) met Bui through their mutual friend Catt Hsu, owner of Happy Gut Sanctuary, then located in The Hungerford Building.
“I love Vietnamese coffee and you can only find it at restaurants,” said Asher. “When I heard someone was actually doing it from scratch, I was all ears. I immediately reached out and asked if she would do the next Themata.”
Bui agreed, and was the only coffee vendor for the almost 4,000 visitors to Themata.
“It was a hit, and we hit it off, and she started doing almost every market,” said Asher. “Just watching her add more than four items to her menu, going from the cart to a shop — it’s been awesome to see her grow.”
After operating the cart at events around Rochester, Bui was offered the opportunity to open a brick and mortar in partnership with Stacy K Floral on 43 Russell St., a gift and floral shop with a large communal seating area. Winter Swan officially opened in August 2023.
“As a fellow immigrant, I see the cultural pride (Bui) has for what she does — her menu is reflective of where she comes from, the ingredients are made from scratch,” said Asher. “She thought people would misunderstand her coffee or think it was too expensive, but quality always speaks for itself.”
Asher, whose family emigrated from India, also attended RIT and ended up in a creative field — something she and Bui often talk about.
“We’re immigrant women in creative fields rather than working as engineers or doctors, how is that perceived?” she said. “Finding a creative path that brings you joy and money — that’s a dream. She’s paving the way for other Vietnamese women who want to do coffee or anything else.”
As a female business owner who’s been given opportunities by other local women like Asher, Hsu of Happy Gut and Stacy Ercan of Stacy K, Bui takes her role as a mentor to her own (right now, all-female) staff very seriously.
“We keep communication open,” she said. “I want this job to be easy on their mental health. I want them to show up, enjoy the work and leave without carrying any feelings home.”
Bui is also grateful for the welcoming, inclusive coffee community in Rochester.
“No coffee shop is exactly like another. We’ve all found our neighborhoods and support each other in doing good things,” she said. “We want this culture to be more than just caffeine to get you through the day.” winterswancoffee.com
Leah Stacy is the editor of CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
