Cafes for Life
Although our equivalent of lockdown bread baking was making a half-decent latte, we’ve been missing cafes. Today we’re looking at a handful that give us a place to think about the world differently, whether that’s giving back to our communities, raising money for charities that matter, working to save our planet, or even redefining their role in mental wellness. As we’ve come to realize as we steam oat milk in our kitchens, there is more to cafes than the drinks they serve; they are the hubs that bring a neighborhood together and offer a framework in which to explore what matters in life.
Pink Owl Coffee, Marin, CA
Before the pandemic, this was our place to head for early morning work meetings, chosen because of its friendly owners, great coffee, and cozy lounge. But the reason we’re including it here is the café’s mission to support breast cancer charities, with 10% of profits going to research and awareness initiatives. Founded by breast cancer survivor Saandra Bowlus and her partner Joe Carlo, the café puts its support front and center, from the name (the Owls are just because they like them), the pink inflected décor, and the savvy branding — as their new retail coffee bags say “Because breast cancer sucks”. When you buy their vanilla lavender oat milk latte made with the on-site roasted blend, or a mochi donut from Third Culture Bakery, or even a puppucino, you get to support a great cause too. Once the space reopens for inside coffee drinking, we recommend you seek out a spot by the fireplace or a window seat, grab a board game or a book on coffee, and settle down with a friend or listen to one of the live music sessions. A local with heart.
Back of the Yards Coffeehouse, Chicago
A womyn and Latinx-owned community-focused coffee company established in 2016 based in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. In one of the city’s most historic districts – many European immigrants came to work on the stockyards, which has most recently seen an influx of Mexican migrants – that has become associated in the news with gun violence, Marya Hernandez and Jesse Iniguez, who grew up in the neighborhood, wanted to establish a different narrative and new opportunities for locals. Working against a belief that “Mexicans don’t drink coffee” and in a place where independent coffee shops weren’t going, Back of the Yards Coffeehouse has become a popular spot – awarded the 2018 Time Out Chicago Love Award for Most Loved Coffee Place. Its drinks menu includes Cafe de olla (with cinnamon and spices), Ojo Rojo (a shot of espresso added to drip), and Café Con Leche. But it is how the cafe supports ethical coffee production and the neighborhood that makes it stand out: The café sources its beans directly from farmers including those in the Chiapas region paying a fair price, directs 95% of waste to compost, everything from coffee cups to used beans, and hires locally, training up interns to be fully qualified baristas. For each purchase of a bag of their 47th Street blend, Back in the Yards Coffeehouse gives $1 to a Social Impact Fund that works to support programs for peace and education in the neighborhood. And those red mugs on the wall, represent all the people who pulled together to make this cafe happen for the community.
Trouble Coffee, San Francisco
We’ve written about how cafes have helped our own emotional wellbeing, but this Outer Sunset coffee shop was started 13 years ago to help the owner, Giulietta Carrelli, manage her own mental health. Many first came to Carrelli’s story on This American Life which relays how she founded the business to give her the order and routine she needed to manage her schizophrenia. Trouble Coffee reads like an autobiography, a stand-in for Carrelli herself, particularly its idiosyncratic menu which features cinnamon toast (for comfort and which is also attributed with starting San Francisco’s high-end toast craze), coconuts (for survival, containing everything needed for nourishment), and coffee (representing speed and communication). This tiny outpost by the ocean — which was created out of the driftwood found on the beach — also gave Carrelli the loose connections she needed to feel safe, to know that as people began to recognize her, she’d be known and understood within this community. Opening a coffee business is not a natural remedy for a mental health condition, but Trouble Coffee allowed Carrelli to make space for herself in ways she hadn’t been able to before and that saved her. As Carrelli/ Trouble says, “trouble is not only a coffee co it is a community of people and power that kept me alive.”
IXV, Brooklyn
In a city where, pre-pandemic, New Yorkers were going through 100,000 disposable coffee cups every half hour, IXV is the sustainably-minded coffee shop and brand that’s needed. It was founded by Jenny Cooper, former J.Crew/ crewcuts designer (the company is named after her grandfather) in the garage of her Boerum Hill, Brooklyn home, to make “life less trashy”. When she started just over a year ago, Cooper had a simple idea to bring sustainability and community together — making coffee for people in the neighborhood who could bring a mug to be filled and drop it off to be cleaned, with the cycle beginning again the next morning. Aiming for zero-waste, IXV encourages customers to bring their own cups (there’s a .25 cent charge for paper cups to cover composting and recycling charges), reduce waste and compost where possible (it’s all the detail here: cold drinks are served in algae lined paper cups which compost better than PLA compostable plastics). IXV also serves as a store with plastic-free household goods, ceramic espresso cups, and refillable hand sanitizer available, a vintage clothing upcyler aiming to counter the environmental impacts of fast fashion through reworking preloved pieces, and a location for a CSA food box that supports local growers and makers, in this instance New York’s Norwich Meadows and givebacks via donations to a local shelter and soup kitchen ChiPS. IXV is giving locals a better way of getting their caffeine and a different model for how our neighborhood coffeeshops might operate. More widely it can inspire us all to carry our keep cups while adjusting daily habits that trash the environment.
Tell us which cafes matter to you and could matter to other people too? Which cafes are helping our minds, our bodies, our communities and our planets function better? You can nominate them for our guide here.
