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Vinh Pham stepped over shards from 23 shattered glass panels when he arrived at the Seven Leaves Cafe he co-owned Wednesday morning. One day and $10,000 in repairs later, customers lined up outside the San Jose location of the “Vietnamese-American Starbucks” for Asian-styled iced coffees, pastries and more.
The Seven Leaves Cafe was one of five Asian-owned businesses in the city that were vandalized in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Pham, however, does not believe the attacks were racially-motivated.
“Even though it was all Asian restaurants, it was just all restaurants that seemed to be doing like kind of well for themselves or just in general,” Pham said. “I just want to say to whoever did this: Even though you vandalized our business, we’re still going to try to continue to try to invest support in the community and our staff in every way we can.
“I do feel heartbroken that these businesses are being targeted only because during this time, they’re not doing so well, right? And to have an extra expense on top of the whole situation just makes it harder on every one else.”
Customers at a nearby Lee’s Sandwiches that was also vandalized shared Pham’s sentiment. Samantha Matsuoka, who prefers to pick up banh mi when she visits, called the attacks unfortunate.
“Times are tough right now with the whole shelter-in-place, everybody is kind of bare-boning it and then just to have this happen, kind of fuels the fire,” Matsuoka said. “Especially with local businesses … you don’t want to see that happen to them, you want to see them thrive.”
Anyone with information about the incidents can contact San Jose police Detective Ryan Wagner at 408-277-4401 or the Milpitas Police Department at 408-586-2400, or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at svcrimestoppers.org.