Picture This: Swiss Photographer Opens Coffee Shop in West Village

Photo Courtesy of Mandie-Beth Chau

Although owning a coffee shop in New York City may be a luxury akin to owning a doodle or a rent-stabilized apartment, David Shama is living the caffeinated dreams of every New Yorker.

In 2011, Hugh Jackman opened Laughing Man Coffee Company, which has two locations in lower Manhattan. Laughing Man’s website says its profits go entirely to charity. Ralph Lauren opened Ralph’s Coffee, first in New York and now internationally. Cafe Grumpy was featured in HBO’s Girls and Blue Bottle Coffee cameoed in Pamela Anderson’s Netflix documentary. The connection between celebrities and coffee is pervasive.

Shama, a Swiss fashion photographer turned entrepreneur, opened a coffee shop and cocktail bar in the West Village. Named after his photography book, the coffee shop feeds his quest for celebrity or influencer status. Do Not Feed Alligators is his – and everyone else’s – dream.

“I just got really obsessed with coffee,” Shama said. “I became a coffee geek at home during the pandemic. It’s a whole other thing when you’re not from the business– it’s a lot. But I continued learning about coffee. I surrounded myself with the best people I could find and started looking for a place.”

Despite the hipster agenda that Do Not Feed Alligators perpetuates, Shama claims that the goal of his establishment is not to be trendy.

“I had the name because I searched long and hard for the name for my book,” Shama said. “And then, when I was working on the coffee shop... I really liked the name I gave to my book, and I thought, ‘Why not? It would be funny.’ My architects thought I should just do the initials – DNFA – but I thought that was shying away from the thing, trying to be trendy or something. So I thought, no, just put it in bold letters.”

Shama believes that the lines are blurred between business and art. He has acted on this belief even as a photographer, and he says it translates to entrepreneurship. 

Shama’s website and a Vice story exhibit his photo series on cross-country road trips where he would persuade a young woman, often someone he recently met, to join. "The idea is to travel with different girls but really discover a new place together. I don't plan much except the destination, we rent a car and everything from there is unexpected,” Shama told Vice in an interview.

Shama’s website shows he was a photographer for controversial photos featured in American Apparel advertisements featuring scantily clad young women. Several controversies surrounded the Los Angeles-based brand, including its use of racy photos in its ad campaigns. 

"A lot of girls were asking me to shoot them because I was shooting for American Apparel at the time, so I integrated the two,” Shama told Office Magazine. "I asked some of the girls, ‘Would you care to do a road trip?’ and of course, that was a bit difficult, but after a few girls went with me and knew I was a cool guy they would recommend other friends. It was fun.” He told the publication he married the model he took on the third road trip, a woman living in Ukraine named Anastassia. 

“My business experience has been as an independent photographer in Paris, where I worked for six years, and also here,” Shama said. “When you do photography projects, you work with a different team each time, so you have to adapt and lead each time and have interpersonal qualities. So I think that's what I have.”

Even when it comes to numbers, Shama is confident in his skills. Although the average profit margin for an independently owned coffee shop is 2.5%, 66% of Americans drink coffee every day, making the coffee industry worth an estimated $48 billion yearly, according to the Wall Street Journal. New York City is home to 3,389 coffee shops– of which many are celebrity-owned or just quirky and niche enough to catch the attention of speed-walking New Yorkers.

“I have knowledge of finance, and I'm a quick learner,” Shama said. “For pricing, for margins, for everything – I present new products, and then I try to negotiate. It's proof of concept. It's a very interesting process, but you definitely have to be close to the numbers. Especially in the beginning – between the rent, the payroll and all the vendors – it sort of squeezes you.”

Shama feels the squeeze since Do Not Feed Alligators has only been open since December 2022.

“At the beginning, you have to buy things for the future,” Shama said. “Like cups. It's like 15,000 cups per size, and you have to pay a huge amount of money in advance. No one trusts you for credit since you're just a new business. This will all get better soon, but there were lots of expenses in the first month.”

Shama feels confident that Do Not Feed Alligators will be worth the investment. Even though the West Village is riddled with similar coffee shops, Shama believes his business stands out.

“We don't really worry about that. We try to offer products that we like, and no one is going to do exactly what we do and have the same environment,” Shama said. “There’s lots of coffee shops right here, but they don’t have the same coffee we do.”

Rather than raise money, Shama started the business with savings. He explained that getting investors would put unnecessary weight on his business, so he preferred to take the risk himself. This also means Shama gets to do things his way, such as making Do Not Feed Alligators a simultaneous coffee and cocktail bar.

Photo Courtesy of Joanna Aguilera

“In Italy, you wouldn't find a coffee shop that doesn't also serve drinks. Even the whole concept of the bar is very different where I come from,” Shama said, noting he’s spent time in several places in the U.S. and Europe, including Italy. “It's less divided, basically. You can do both. I want it to be a place where after dinner, people can go, and half of them can have tea and the others can have a cocktail. It’s more fun.”

Customers are both intrigued and perplexed by the multifaceted nature of the business. 

“It’s a happenin’ atmosphere, but it’s also chill and relaxing at the same time,” Sarah Rocchio, a freshman in the House of Clara Barton, said. “They have great coffee, and the name adds to its unique coffee-slash-bar vibes, but it can also be confusing because there’s no clear place for where to order and where to be served.” 

An employee that has been at Do Not Feed Alligators since its opening explained that the coffee shop's quality and variety separate it from competitors. “There's so many coffee shops in the city, and there's so much clientele. Where we set ourselves apart is that we do both the high-end pour-overs and the high-end cocktails,” the employee said.

Like Laughing Man or Ralph’s, Do Not Feed Alligators prides itself on its coffee selection. Shama chose to invite celebrity coffee expert Scott Rao to help choose the types of coffee that the company serves.

“We work with different roasters. We are not roasting anything; we just pick the best. I have a famous coffee partner – Scott Rao – who is a consultant for roasters,” Shama said. “He just started roasting himself, so I buy from him, and a few others that I think are among the best.”

Shama also chooses all the wine and adjusts the selection based on the reception from his clients. Although the bar aspect of the business has received less attention, the Do Not Feed Alligators team expects this to change.

“My experience is in the bar side of things, which has been the hardest part to get off the ground. That will change with warmer weather, and we’re hoping to have a wider range of cocktails,” the DNFA employee said.

Shama said all his employees are dedicated to the business.“They all seem really invested in the project,” Shama said. “I feel like everyone cares about the business. It’s a new business, and they felt it was worth the risk to come work here.”

Photo Courtesy of Mandie-Beth Chau

The DNFA employee said the focus on good coffee unifies the team. The team has experience working at other coffee shops and bars and bring those skills to Shama’s budding business. David "has a ton of ideas,” they said. “He’s always thinking about a ton of angles that we can grow in. He's always thinking of the next step and hasn’t been satisfied until things are up to his level of taste.”

Word of mouth has been the main form of marketing for Do Not Feed Alligators, which Shama believes is working well.

“If you have a good product, and an environment where people feel comfortable, they will come. We've only relied on word of mouth for now,” Shama said. “I activated the Google and Yelp profiles, and then the reviews came. All the food influencers came by themselves and took pictures.”

Some success is due to “a lot of online engagement” according to the employee.

Social media can also pose challenges to a small business. Shama said their unpopular no-laptop policy garnered some negative reviews. TikTok user @ellaandthecity praised Do Not Feed Alligators for their ambiance and menu but captioned her video, “just don’t try to study there.”

Nevertheless, Shama is confident that Do Not Feed Alligators will succeed. By the end of the year, he expects the business to break even. He explained that his business plan was anything but straightforward.

“I was wrong about all my business plans because you can't predict so many things,” Shama said. “Like the construction, there are so many costs that are not foreseen. Plans change. Even if you double your budget, you will be wrong.”

The experience of starting a business has hardly jaded Shama.

“Maybe now I would know a little better because I just did it, but even then I would probably be wrong,” Shama said. “I just went for it, and then I couldn't go back, and now I’m in it, and I'm very excited about it.”

(Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with more accurate references. A previous version used a quote from Wikipedia that could not be traced to an original source and was removed by Wikipedia and, subsequently, the EST.)

Mandie-Beth Chau is the Campus Editor at the Empire State Tribune. She is a freshman studying Journalism, Culture and Society.