The thing about coffee is we get to share it with each other and there’s no one better to share it with than our spouses or partners. We fill our favorite mugs and start our days with the morning blend and the promise that we’ll do our best that day, for each other and everyone around us.
Terry Wong and Danielle Guttinger Wong are truly living that promise. Our coffee journey led us to Trung Nguyen E-Coffee in Chinatown one recent evening to meet with the couple. Husband and wife are dedicated coffee lovers with wonderfully eclectic tastes. The Wongs know the good stuff. During our coffee klatch, they shared some of their favorite cafés, requisite for this series leading up to our Best of Houston® “Best Coffee” selection for 2026. They also know how imperative and therapeutic a simple, homebrewed, made-with-love cup of joe can be.
The Wongs are well-known in Houston. Terry is a longtime nightclub owner and restaurateur, best known for iconic Houston establishments like Glitter Karaoke and Blood Bros. BBQ, the Michelin Guide-ed barbecue joint hailed by food writers from Texas Monthly to the New York Times. Danielle is a successful realtor. What may not be known about them is how much they love coffee. For them, it’s not a pastime, it’s a lifelong love affair and a liquid bond that’s helped bring them strength in difficult times.
The Wongs met in May 2020, when COVID lockdown was just beginning. They were married in February 2022 and around that time Terry was diagnosed with colon cancer. Over a coconut matcha latte (Danielle), coconut cream Phin (Terry) and a black sesame cream Phin (yours truly), Terry offered a very positive health update and a bit of a PSA.
“Yeah, February 2022, and it’s resurfaced twice since then,” he said of the cancer. “But, we think we got it all here. My last surgical procedure was the end of September, and then the first CT scans and bloodwork from that were in February. Those were negative. And, I literally found out an hour ago that my CT scan today was negative. So, that was great news.”
Colorectal cancer has been in the news lately, with researchers noting it is one of the fastest-rising cancer diagnoses for people under 50. Terry knows those statistics and has been crusading on social media to make more people aware of preventative measures like screenings and lifestyle changes.
“I mean, in my case, I like to be transparent with everybody. I lived the absolute wrong way for the first 48 years of my life, as far as diet goes,” he said. “And, you know, mid-30s is when I stopped exercising regularly, like I used to. When I was younger, I was very athletic, I played sports. A lot of sports, actually. But, like a lot of people, I let myself go. I got into the bar business with my brother, did that for a lot of years. Drank too much, ate too much, didn’t rest enough, worked too much, you know? Recipe for disaster, in a nutshell. And that basically caught up with me.”
Terry said the plans are still early, but he’d like to create a cancer nonprofit, something that focuses on patient wellness and also caregivers. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s had a hand in assisting challenged communities. During COVID lockdown, he and a friend, Stevie Vu, launched Chow Down in Chinatown. The online community group was created to help AAPI-owned restaurants in the vast Chinatown food sector survive the pandemic’s daunting difficulties. The group is still active and is now 50,000 members strong.
“We even did a couple of live feed events, which is where we met. We did a mukbang, a mukbang is like this trend where people literally film themselves eating, it was a big thing in Korea. We did that, we did the event at Ocean Palace upstairs,” Terry said. “We ended up doing like four of those, I think. I met her at one of those events.”
“The first one,” Danielle added.
“Fast forwarding a few years, we ended up having our wedding reception there, because that’s where we met, right? And we love that restaurant, too,” Terry said.
“So, obviously, we were in our relationship, kind of new in our relationship, but I feel like the COVID years, everything was intensified. People that met during the COVID years, you almost built a stronger relationship because you had time. I feel like connections were made really strong during the COVID years,” Danielle said. “When we found out he was sick, that also brought us closer together. So, the simple ritual of making coffee in the morning almost became like this place of peace for me. I found the ceremony of it became like a therapy for me. It still is.”
Terry agreed and noted Danielle grinds coffee beans at night to have them ready for the next morning. At home, she’s stocked up on Trung Nguyen Legend from Trung Nguyen, a global sensation which began in Vietnam in 1996 and is now in 60 different countries.
“We always have to have a variety of kinds of coffee because my mom comes over, she likes instant coffee. She grew up in Hong Kong and she just has to have instant coffee. We have all the coffees, but she still goes back to her instant coffee,” Danielle said. “And then, Terry actually introduced me to their brand of instant coffee during the freeze of 2021. Obviously, the city was without water and electricity, so Terry introduced me to this brand, Legend.”
“It happens to be her favorite coffee,” said Terry, beaming with pride. “I don’t know this as fact but apparently in Vietnam they are like the place. So, when we saw that they were coming here, we were like, we gotta go.”
If you ask, Terry would say Danielle is the coffee expert between them, and she might agree. They both drink their coffee black. They drink it all day. They are coffee bean collectors, brew with special water and have no time for the foolishness of a Keurig machine.
“My mom’s a big hot tea drinker, so we had that. High school is really where I started drinking coffee, but not anything like we’re drinking now,” Terry shared his coffee origin story. “I always drank black coffee or Vietnamese iced coffee, which is another one of my very guilty pleasures.”
But, like our friend and fellow coffee fanatic Nayeli, from our third installment, Danielle’s history with coffee goes back to childhood. Infancy, in fact.
“My mom, she says and admits that she put café con leche in my baby bottle,” she said. “There were no rules. It was give me coffee, which was Nescafé cooked on the stovetop with evaporated milk and sugar. I was drinking that as a baby.”
Danielle grew up in Sharpstown, Montrose and the ‘burbs and found herself at places like Charlie’s in Montrose, 59 Diner, Café Brasil, Agora, House of Pies and Dolce & Freddo – not just for what filled the cup but because “I love coffee shops. I still love the coffee shop culture. What I love is, wherever you go in the world, you can find a coffee shop and just hang out.”
“I love the whole process of it, where it comes from, I actually love making coffee. My first job was in a coffee shop. My boss was a Greek guy but from South Africa,” she said. “Every morning when I would get there for my shift he’d have me make him an espresso as a test, to see if I was learning and making proper espresso.”
By now, it should be established, folks. These folks know coffee. I asked for more favorites.
“Okay, so I’m gonna start with Catalina Coffee on Washington. I just feel like it’s so solid. That’s just one of my favorite places, even though it’s like really hip and cool and I’m usually not a hip and cool person,” Danielle said of the spot, also mentioned in our coffee with Julian. “But, that place is just so solid. I do like the vibe but at the end of the day for me it’s about the coffee. They just make a solid cup of coffee.”
“Sometimes I get two,” Danielle said of going out for coffee. “I like to kind of judge people and if they can make a perfect cappuccino then I feel like they can do other things, so I always start with a cappuccino as my benchmark. If their cappuccino is flawless then, okay, I’m ready to try something else.”
“I really was impressed by Qamaria. It’s a Yemenese coffee place on Westheimer,” she said.
“It’s right down the street,” Terry noted.
“It’s not very far,” Danielle agreed. “It was very random, we just happened to be in the area because Phoenicia is right across the street. Usually, I’m a black coffee person, but going to different coffee shops, I try to try different things. Sometimes I just ask the barista, ‘What do you like?’ because I’m not afraid to try things. And I had the pistachio latte. It was pretty mind-blowing.”
Terry added Siphon as a favorite, the Montrose spot mentioned in our first installment by my nephew, Isaiah. And the Wongs are fans of Slowpokes and started naming all the locations, as if they’d been to each one.
Because they have roots and contacts in the service industry, they’re considering opening a coffee shop. Danielle’s sister once owned as many as 17 in Colorado and has already offered to help them launch their own.
“This is kind of our creative period. It’s like a hobby for us to talk about what is our future coffee shop going to look like because we’re still kind of dancing around the idea,” Danielle said. “I think we finally determined that we don’t want it to be a place where people are running in to grab a cup, not a fast coffee shop. It’ll be a place where you’re going to come in and you’re going to hang out for a bit. It’s not going to be big, it’s going to be small, very, very boutique, but very comfortable.”
“Yeah, that’s something that we’re thinking about,” Terry said.
“It’s a project for next year,” Danielle said. “We already have the location.”
The Wongs could glide on the successes they’ve already enjoyed, but they’re Houstonians at heart, people who love this city and want to create new, exciting opportunities for their neighbors. It makes sense that they want to share the art of coffee, how great it tastes and especially the comfort it affords us, a reliable constant amidst life’s uncertainty. We fill our favorite mugs with it each morning and toast to the promise of a new day.
“I think coffee is connection. There’s always a place for a coffee shop because I think people are always looking for a place to stop and rest their feet, maybe meet a friend, or make a friend,” Danielle said, to conclude our first (but not last!) meet-up. “It’s just a place where people connect.”
