News / coffee
Dan’s grand plan for his coffee van
There is a queue of customers at Dandan’s Coffee on a recent morning and he greets each one in turn as they deliberate over their order at his van.
Dan enquires genuinely about their welfare, their job or their weekend plans.
In return, each of them ask about how he has been faring and frequently they mention his social media as having drawn them to him.
View this post on Instagram
Many of the customers today have purposefully deviated from their journeys to get their coffee from Dan who is based at Central Park Trading Estate in Hengrove on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; and is at Knowle West Health Park on Tuesdays.
The conversation and coffee allow Dan’s customers a small moment of tranquillity and positivity in their busy lives and this was exactly Dan’s vision when he started Dandan’s Coffee.
“I weren’t very confident and I used to struggle with anxiety… not very sociable,” Dan tells Bristol24/7.
It was a personal trainer who gave Dan the idea of starting a coffee van; with Dan subsequently getting support from the south Bristol community and doing a fundraising walk to secure the money to open his own business.
View this post on Instagram
Dan explains that with his van, he wants to pay forward what he has been lucky enough to be given.
“I’m just trying to build a community to help people who started like me or to help in general,” Dan says.
Many of Dan’s customers have picked up on his ethos, paying in advance for someone’s coffee if they might not be able to afford it.
And Dan also offers a free coffee to anyone else called Daniel.
Main photo: Zoe Lambe
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
