Living their dream: Couple quits jobs to start pink coffee cart in Echo Park

ECHO PARK (KABC) -- Karla Cruz and Michael Burton, a 29 year-old-couple, quit their jobs and started Karla's Coffee Cart.

"I was working at a coffee shop in Glendale, I was a full-time barista. He was driving for Uber," said Cruz.

The idea came last year, I was in this exact same park. I saw a guy pushing a mobile coffee cart, like a bicycle. I came home and I told my fiancé that this guy was selling coffee out of a cart and he said it looks like something we can do," said Cruz.

For nine months they researched coffee beans, ordered equipment and finally started serving out of their own cart two months ago.

"I'm an immigrant, I came to this country when I was seven years old. I struggled to learn English and adjust to a different country. When I finished high school, I didn't have a work permit or anything that would allow me to even get a job in America," said Cruz.

Cruz is covered by DACA which allowed her to get the work permit she needed to become a barista and to start her own business.

"I'm the first one in my family to actually start something like owning their own business so it's a lot of pressure," said Cruz

But with DACA, the help of her fiancé and this little pink cart, she's able to make her American dream a reality.

"I started dreaming big. It was something that was very weird at first because I thought it wasn't a possibility. But little by little we got it here," said Cruz

And how well does this couple work together?

Well Cruz handles the coffee and Burton handles the customers.

"The number one thing that we take away from doing this for two months so far is the communities that we've been in, they have welcomed us in a way that you wouldn't believe," said Burton.

You can visit Karla's Coffee Cart at Echo Park Lake every Saturday and Sunday.