"It’s safe to say the Nirvana Soul coffee shop has gained itself some diehard fans. If you live in the South Bay, chances are you’ve spotted at least one or two folks on the street wearing Nirvana Soul tote bags or face masks with pride. Owned by sisters Jeronica and Be’Anka, Nirvana Soul is downtown San Jose’s first black female-owned coffee shop. The siblings gave their space a cheery sunset color palate (complete with fuchsia ceiling) and curated an upstairs art gallery to highlight local and BIPOC artists. There’s also a mural of the sisters with a fun backstory to it: Painter Ricardo Gonzalez dropped by the shop one day to offer his artistic services (also letting Jeronica and Be’Anka know that this would be his first mural and he’d understood if they wanted to hire someone with more experience). “We told him we’d never opened a coffee shop before so let’s just see what he [came] up with,” the owners share on their Facebook page." - Johanna Harlow