"Journey to Beyu has been filled with risks, bold moves"

By Monica Chen w/ The Herald Sun
For Dorian Bolden, it was a long and winding road to get to this point, when his dream to open Beyú Caffé looks like it might come true.
From 2002 to 2005, Bolden was a senior financial adviser with Bank of America Investment Services. In 2004, his father died, and the event brought great change to his life.
“I realized that tomorrow is not guaranteed,” Bolden said.
Over the course of weeks and months, Bolden looked at his life and thought about what his purpose was, what he was meant to do.
As he thought about what brings him joy, Bolden recalled Café Intermezzo, the Atlanta
café that emulates 19th century Viennese coffee culture. He also thought about the diversity of
New York, and what brings people there together.
“I thought about, ‘Where would I have fun working?’ Well, I love poetry slams. I love jazz.
Okay, why don’t I create that?” he said.
And after a vacation to Jamaica, everything fell into place.
“I saw in Jamaica the conditions that some people live in, and I realized that I have no complaints,” he said. “That’s when I realized I could do whatever I wanted to do.”
He also realized what the name of his café would be: Be yourself — Be you — Beyú Caffé.
In 2005, he quit his job at Bank of America, worked at a coffee shop in New York for some time
and then moved back to Durham to be with Taineisha Bolden, who is now his wife.
The couple is now in their second year of marriage and expecting their first child. A first-year
resident at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, Taineisha Bolden was for most of 2008 the sole
breadwinner of the family.
She admitted she had some reservations when Dorian Bolden first told her of his idea.
“When he first told me he was quitting his job to go work as a barista, I was shocked and perplexed,” she said. “But for him to own his own business fit his personality. It’s very in keeping with it, for him to be in charge.”
“I never imagined being married to someone who would start their business. Three years is not that long, but it just feels like it had taken forever for Dorian to start his business],” Bolden
added and laughed. “But the fact that things are moving, and he’s really excited, is just wonderful. I’m really anxious to see the fruits of his labor.”
In the years since Bolden came up with Beyú, he worked various jobs to learn the industry, including as a barista at Shade Tree Coffee, as a manager at Amelia Café and a cashier, then assistant manager at Panera Bread.
He learned how to make a good cup of espresso, how much food to order to ensure the optimum
stockpile at the end of the week and how many employees to keep on staff to keep up with foot traffic.
All that time, Bolden was also working on his business plan, meeting with a mentor and enlisting
the help and advice of the people he encountered. One of his proudest moments, Bolden said,
was when the regional owner of Panera complimented him on his business plan.
By 2008, Bolden felt ready to finally realize his dream and quit the assistant managing position at Panera. But the economy threw him a curveball. When Wall Street started to crash last year, all his investors fled.
But Bolden regrouped, picking up new investorsone by one. He also had to scrap previous plans
of building a stand-alone space for Beyú as a real estate investment.
“My biggest doubt came in June 2008 when the commercial development project fell through,” Bolden admitted. “But you have to say to yourself, ‘Either you’re going to do it or you’re not.’ ”
“As Bill Cosby said though, ‘Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it,’” Bolden said. “I had to tell myself, I can do it.”