Black Cowboy Coffee

John Otagburuagu founded Black Cowboy Coffee in August 2015. As the name might suggest, the street cafe serves coffee and waffles (as well as smoothies and other foods). As for the black cowboy, well that’s John.

Why a ‘cowboy’, you might ask? The simple reason is that John has been obsessed with cowboys since he was a child and when living in the United States he discovered that Afro-Americans were central to the legend of the cowboy, so wanted to continue this legend.

Prior to setting up the business, John was working as truck driver in the US and living in Richmond, Texas. When working in Texas, John’s cowboy persona unsurprisingly didn’t particularly stick out. However John had plans to move to the UK and knew things wouldn’t be so easy to express himself as a cowboy – he realised he’d need to be his own boss if he wanted to continue having fun as a cowboy.

When John arrived in London, he was, in his own words “destitute and living out of a room in a hostel.” He was not used to this and wanted to change his situation. At his local job centre he was told about the Start Up Loan scheme, and so he applied for a loan. Since receiving it he has not looked back. As John says, “the loan was a lifesaver, I came back here from the US, I was living in a hostel, but I found out about the loan scheme. I was so pleased to get this as I didn’t have credit records or a house in the UK.”

Initially after hearing about the loan, the question for John was ‘what business could he set up?’ Having thought about it, John decided to set up a café – he had prior experience in the service industry and had a love for good coffee, particular as it was a favoured drink of cowboys. John also had a love for Belgian waffles and wanted to make Liege waffles – which are denser, richer, sweeter and chewier than other Belgian waffles. He discovered theses waffles in Liege when he and a group of friends bought an old Mercedes and travelled throughout Europe. “Your first experience of a Liege waffle, will last in your memory.”