La La Land Kind Café, a feel-good coffee shop/café located off Lowest Greenville Avenue at 5626 Bell Avenue is opening on Monday, March 25.
The new spot focuses on an extensive coffee and tea menu complemented by a small menu of pastries and toast (more food to be added in future) to offer an all-organic food and beverage program in a comfortable residential setting. The foundation of the business is employment of foster youth.
La La Land Kind Cafe is a training ground for aging out foster youth. They will learn the basic fundamentals of job skills – timeliness, cleanliness, customer relations, productivity and teamwork.
Café creator and founder, Francois Reihani – only 23 years old himself – also founded the non-profit We Are One Project in 2017. The charity’s mission is to provide a place of employment for foster youth who have turned 18 and are no longer receiving assistance. La La Land Kind Café is employing foster youth that struggle to find or maintain a job.
Reihani explains, “The coffee shop/cafe is our flagship business set to employ and mentor these aging or already aged-out foster youth. Through our paid program, we give them the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to thrive in the working world.” 10% of all proceeds from the café will be donated to the We Are One Project.
The shop is located inside a 1,500 square-foot, century-old renovated home painted all-white with pops of yellow throughout to give a feeling of happiness and joy. Reihani says, “When people walk up, I want them to feel like they’re walking into heaven. This is a place where guests can enjoy high-quality, delicious food, coffee and tea while supporting a great mission.”
Reihani is committed to serving only organic products. Food offerings include fresh-baked pastries, house-made toasts and empanadas. The drink menu is an extensive offering of coffee classics, coffee signatures, coffee reserves, matcha classics, matcha signatures, classic teas and reserve teas.
The team traveled around the world on a quest to learn about and procure the highest quality products including matcha. Only Ceremonial Grade matcha is served; the highest quality one can obtain. It is sourced from one of the oldest family-owned farms in Japan.
Drink machines that will be used were meticulously sourced as well, including the espresso machine, built by hand for 15 weeks in Amsterdam. The pour-over coffee will be created with a Poursteady machine that automatically creates the perfect drink. The Poursteady is installed in only a few other coffee shops in the United States with La La Land Kind Café being the second shop in Texas and the only one in the DFW area.
