Profile | Coffee shop Land to Sea in New York is a love letter to its Asian-American co-founders’ heritage – and a space for all
Behind the counter at Land to Sea, a coffee shop in Brooklyn, New York, is a Chinese tear-off calendar and a golden lucky cat, while the round coffee tables in the seating area are lined with an array of Chinese newspapers.
Over in the back room, fold-out tables and plastic red stools reminiscent of Hong Kong dai pai dong occupy the space, which is illuminated by a green and red neon sign showcasing the cafe’s mahjong-tile-inspired logo.
For Emily Shum and Eva Zhou, Land to Sea’s co-founders, these details – and the cafe as a whole – act as a love letter to their Asian-American upbringing and a homage to their immigrant families, who moved to the United States from Hong Kong and northern China, respectively.
By day, the coffee shop serves Asian-inspired drinks such as mandarin latte and ginger latte, on top of other coffee and tea selections; in the evenings, it moonlights as an intimate creative venue, hosting events such as mahjong nights, wine tastings and art workshops.
“The allure of Land to Sea is that we’re welcoming you into an extension of our home,” says Shum. “We’ve made this place very personal, but that’s on purpose.”
Shum and Zhou first came up with the idea for their coffee shop in late 2020, after they had both spent several years working in the fashion industry.
The two friends, who met while studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, were starting to establish themselves in the corporate world – Shum at Balenciaga in New York, Zhou at Converse in Boston in Massachusetts – before they realised they needed to switch fields entirely.
“We both knew that we didn’t really want to do fashion after a while, because we both grew up in the food and beverage industry, by way of our parents, who immigrated here and either worked in or owned their restaurants,” says Shum.
Zhou’s parents ran multiple restaurants, including in Texas and Nebraska – she was born in the former and grew up in the latter – while Shum’s grandfather opened a Chinese-Latino restaurant called New Apolo in Brooklyn 30 years ago. Today, it is run by her brother.
“I feel like we grew up in hospitality,” says Shum. “We had talked a lot, and connected a lot in our friendship, about wanting to do something on our own that connected to our heritage and to the community that we were part of in New York.”
So Shum and Zhou got to work, eventually contacting a friend who had grown up in Hong Kong, Jeremy Son, to help design the space.
While the front room of Land of Sea functions as a classic coffee shop, visitors will spot plenty of Hong Kong touches, including ceiling fixtures painted in the deep green colour of Hong Kong trams, a counter inspired by the wood seen in cha chaan teng, red curtains inspired by Wong Kar-wai’s classic 2000 film In the Mood for Love, and newspaper-lined (but glass-topped) tables that act as a nod to Shum’s childhood.
“Growing up, my dinner time was the whole family – my grandma, grandpa, uncles, cousins, all of us – circled around a coffee table,” she recalls. “We would lay newspaper out, and then we would eat dinner on the coffee table.”
The circular tables were also intentional, Zhou adds. “It’s such a prominent shape in Chinese [culture] for having meals together, sitting down together.”
The Hong Kong and mainland Chinese influences also trickle down to the drinks and food. Some hot drinks are served in porcelain Chinese tea cups, and for a quick bite, there is a rotation of seasonal baked goods, including pineapple buns and flower hot dog buns.
“People get so shocked when they see that,” Zhou says of the latter. “They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s deconstructed.’ It’s jarring for them, but for me, I’ve seen that my whole life.”
Meanwhile, the back room, with its moody ambience and neon lights, is inspired by Hong Kong’s Temple Street Night Market and Chinatown night markets around the world.
Here, guests will find a range of knick-knacks or “refined clutter” – which, Shum notes, is “a trademark of immigrant households” – including a photo of Zhou’s parents in front of their first restaurant taken before she was born. (She quips: “Can you believe fish soup was US$2.50 back then?”)
The bathroom also notably features a wallpaper of Chinese newspapers, and has become an established selfie spot for Land to Sea visitors.
“Our coffee shop is definitely all about Chinese and Hong Kong culture in everything we do,” says Zhou. “A big part of our identity here is making our family proud, representing our culture […] There was a need to create a space for us to connect, talk more about our culture, learn more about each other and just celebrate it, especially in the coffee scene.
“It seems like in our industry specifically, there’s a bit of a mould of what you expect when you go to a coffee shop, and now, especially after the pandemic, it feels like third spaces [places aside from home or workplaces] have become more prominent for interacting with other people.”
That is why the coffee shop also acts as a community space, with Land to Sea playing host to events such as food pop-ups, jazz performances, markets and mahjong nights, which have become a staple on the cafe’s event calendar.
“We want to keep the space fluid and bring in and represent people from all kinds of backgrounds and hold all types of workshops, where people can really connect. It’s not a typical coffee shop at all,” says Zhou.
While Land to Sea has been welcomed with open arms since it opened, in October 2021 – though many tourists also make it a point to visit the space – it was not all smooth sailing for Zhou and Shum.
Opening a new business during the pandemic presented a number of logistical and budgeting challenges, and navigating impostor syndrome was not easy.
“Especially being young women in New York building a business – that can be very mentally challenging,” says Zhou. “It takes a lot of guts to be able to go against the grain of what your family wants, what society essentially thinks is the right way to live.”
Indeed, her parents questioned her decision to return to the hospitality industry. “In the beginning, they were both like, ‘Don’t quit your full-time jobs for this,’ because for them working in this industry was survival,” she says.
“They think working a full-time job is the American dream – having that safety net, the benefits, all of that.”
But for Zhou and Shum, it was precisely seeing their respective parents work in hospitality, and their grit and determination over the years, that led the two to become the people and entrepreneurs they are today.
“Growing up in that environment, we worked at a very young age,” Zhou says, recalling how she would help crack eggs and wash vegetables at the family restaurant.
“Seeing your family work and earn their living first-hand, that’s definitely a reason why Emily and I have such strong work ethics. We’re very ambitious and able to be entrepreneurs, because we witnessed that.”
Shum agrees, recalling: “There would be days that I didn’t see my dad until 3am. He’d come home, I’d see him for three minutes, and then the next day, before I left to school, he was already out the door.
“I think that has really shaped me and my identity growing up – the feeling of you gotta go, you got to do it.
“I kind of yearn for that chaos, you know?” she adds with a laugh.
Thankfully, their leap of faith has been worth it.
“Returning to hospitality has felt very natural, especially since it’s something that we both know and are so familiar with,” says Shum. “When I was growing up, I tried so hard to depart from my roots, my heritage.
“My parents, now, coming here, they’re like, ‘Wow, you’re really embracing what it means to be not only Chinese, but Chinese-American, and making it your own.’”
