Today we’d like to introduce you to Leonardo Baloa, Andreina Di Zio.
Leonardo and Andreina, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We came to this country to advance our education. Myself (Leonardo) enrolled and completed a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, where I developed algorithms for left ventricular assist devices. Andreina enrolled in an MBA program from Duquesne University also in Pittsburgh.
We both started our careers like most people do. I started in the medical device field where I grew from a medical devices developer into managerial roles. In between, I also completed an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Andreina, she grew into a banking management career at PNC Bank where she became a branch manager.
Then our beautiful twin kids arrived in 2010, and Andreina finished her career in banking. In 2011, we moved to California because Leonardo received an offer as Director of R&D in a startup company. Unfortunately, our career came to a halt when startup ended his project and left us in pursuing our own business.
We started purchasing a small cafe in Anaheim (Miraloma Cafe) which we slowly improved in terms of business process and customer services. We used our experience in the banking industry and in design (customer center design) to provide services and to improve process and systems where it matters.
After succeeding with Miraloma Cafe, we decided to incur a new marketing, vegetarian/vegan, where we could use what we have learned before. Well, we merged recently with Green Bliss Cafe and have been working on making it a better place for the vegetarian/vegan market.
We were fortunate enough to have inherited a place that already had a name and recognition, and the challenge was how we could improve on what it was. Since its beginning, we listened carefully to our daily customer and in this process, we sensed that one of the major issues encountered by vegetarian/vegan market is places to go to, of course. But also, most vegan/vegetarian places only offer vegan/vegetarian dishes. We heard from our customers, over and over again how difficult was to eat by themselves or how difficult was to bring their non-vegetarian friends and family.
Well, we positioned our cafe to be a healthy place. Healthy also entails happiness, and thus the opportunity to enjoy the company of friends and family. With this vision in place, we expanded our menu and included non-vegan options, invested in new equipment and have separated workstation to respect the sanctity of creating vegan and non-vegan dishes. Of course, with our changes, came challenges of many of our Vega customer thinking that we are making the place a non-vegan cafe, nothing is farther from the truth. We are here to serve them, we are here to provide a more integrated environment. (Something that we believe we should strive for.)
The result is that today, we hear it over and over how happy our customers are. They can bring their families and friends and now, their non-vegan/vegetarian friends, have delicious choices that they are happy for.
In addition, we have expanded our vegan and gluten-free dessert offers and actually, we are becoming famous for. To give you an idea, how much we have improved our desserts, we challenged some of our customers to tells us the difference between our vegan and non-vegan chocolate cookies, and most of the time the point our vegan chocolate cookie as the regular cookie. Finally, our cakes are to die for, and what started as a trial, it has evolved into customer regularly asking for gluten-free and vegan birthday cakes.
Our next step is to revive our physical place, and have more families to join us. We want it better, we want it cleaner, we simply want our customer to enjoy their experience at our place.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
One of our main challenges was our vegan/vegetarian customers who constantly attacked us thru social media when we expanded our menu that included meat options. They incorrectly thought that we were making their favorite place go away. Nothing is farther from the truth.
Another challenge we had was our employees. They disagreed in principle of our vision and the changes that were coming to the cafe, so they started sabotaging our coffee place directly with customers, thru rumors and social media. Well, we immediately started a campaign of letting people know where we stand. And we focused on hard work. Our focus was the delivery of something delicious, something fresh, something good. We focused on improving the texture and taste of every single dish, we still do. We listen hard to make improvements all the time.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Green Bliss – what should we know?
Our business stands for fresh and healthy food. We started by offering vegetarian/vegan options and extended to non-vegetarian options made primarily in the oven. We have had complained because our meals are not fast food. People want it now, but unfortunately baked meals take some time, even when we cooked them with “fast” cooking ovens.
We also want to make our experience to our place memorable. It is a beautiful venue, with really good food and well, you can add to this mixture friends and family. And our employees are spectacular, they make you feel welcome and there are always making sure that everybody’s need is being attended.
Most recently, we have added a series of “healthy” desserts that are gluten-free and vegan that has been a hit. People come to our store just for that and we honestly like to promote them.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
We would like to thank all the people who challenged us, advisors, teachers, co-workers. But we do have a special place in our hearts for our employees, they are the vessel that provides this customer experience. It has taken a long time to find these special souls that are kind, receptive and welcoming.
Contact Info:
- Address: 305 N Harbor Blvd
# 103
Fullerton, CA 92832 - Website: http://green-bliss-cafe.business.site/
- Phone: (714) 773-0018
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenblissthecafe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenBlissTheCafe/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreenBlissCafe
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/green-bliss-fullerton
Image Credit:
Green Bliss
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
