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Entrepreneur Brian Roberts has found a way to elevate his mission to amplify Black-owned businesses. He has been the proud owner of The Black Pantry since 2020 and is now set to open Good Karma Coffee in February 2024, Startland News reports. The shared space will have the two business operating side by side in a new location, which he describes as an “elevated Black coffee space.” Located at 3134 Gillham Rd. in Kansas City, MO, doors are open on an invitation basis until full launch. “Every Saturday we’ve been doing things like inviting different groups, playing with our menu, and getting the team some experience,” Roberts told the outlet. “I’d say I’ve attracted some of the best baristas in the city.” Customers visiting Good Karma Coffee can look forward to trying out locally sourced products, including signature roasts from Marcell Coffee, while also learning about the origins of their coffee. “If you want to have a pour-over in front of you, the barista can do it while...
NBA star Jimmy Butler has brewed his love for coffee into a storefront in Miami, FL’s Design District. After teasing the concept for some time, the Miami Heat star officially opened his first BigFace Coffee shop on Dec. 5, 2024, according to Axios. The café boasts a chic interior design, a selection of merchandise including hats and jerseys, and an outdoor courtyard featuring ample seating. “This is a dream of mine,” Butler said at the grand opening, CBS News reported . “I get to come in here, chill out, meet people, vibe out, and become friends. Coffee is life. It’s how I start my mornings, watching my daughter play while I enjoy a cappuccino. For me, that’s the quintessential coffee experience.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by La Marzocco USA (@lamarzocco.usa) Besides Butler, other basketball figures at the grand opening included Carmelo Anthony , Heat center Kevin Love, and former NBA guard Brandon Jennings, according to Axios. DJ Khaled and French footballer...
A new Detroit, MI, coffee shop has opened its doors. Crain’s Detroit Business reports Charity Dean, president and CEO of the Michigan Black Business Alliance, has launched Rosa Cafe + Market at 222 Third Ave. This isn’t Dean’s first venture either — she previously opened a Rosa Cafe, named after her great-grandmother, in 2022. “We just wanted to make sure we were open for the people,” Dean explained to the outlet. “There’s been a lot of excitement about the new cafe, so we wanted to get it open.” The new 800-square-foot storefront, which is currently being stewarded by five employees, is in a luxury residential property close to the Detroit River. The Cafe will be able to seat nearly a dozen customers at once inside while more can gather in its outdoor patio. Customers can expect to sip on various coffee items including an Ethiopian house roast coffee made by Faust Haus Roasting Co. Additionally, there will also be snacks and food options available for purchase. Dean is looking...
Rapper and entrepreneur Pusha T has entered the coffee scene. A post on his Instagram page revealed his latest venture, Grindin, a coffee brand inspired by the Clipse single. Some customers got an exclusive first look at Pusha T’s creation at Café Tropica in Los Angeles, where they sampled its high-caffeine blend on Nov. 16, 2024, Complex notes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pusha T (@kingpush) Reflecting on the venture Pusha T commented, “All my dreams & ideas start from my passions. Luckily I have been able to find partnerships and platforms to help bring my visions to life. This is just a piece of me & how I start my day.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pusha T (@kingpush) “Looking ahead, Pusha T plans to launch a proprietary blend in the upcoming year. He also aims to expand nationally, positioning the brand as ‘premium yet accessible’ within the market.” “Like-minded hard workers will find that Grindin is the tool they need to get things done,” a...
After hosting several pop-ups, Amanda Harth and Felton Kizer now have their own storefront. Block Club Chicago reports the pair are now proud owners of Monday Coffee, located in Chicago, IL’s North Lawndale neighborhood. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Monday Coffee (@drinkmondaycoffee) Prior to opening the storefront, the founders had been making their mark in the area through various pop-ups, including events at Soho House Chicago and the Obama Foundation, since launching the company in October 2020. The pair were creating what they believed to be a “safe space.” “Being able to be in North Lawndale and serve a community, create a safe space through art, and continuing to use coffee as a vehicle is basically the foundation of Monday Coffee,” Harth told the outlet. “It’s important for Black people, Brown people, to have a safe space to exist. With the pandemic, a lot of those spaces disappeared.” For a two-year period starting in 2021, customers could find Monday...
Booker Washington is making homeownership more accessible for urban communities. He is the founder of Techie Homes, a real estate company that designs “smart micro-communities” in Atlanta, GA, priced below current market rates, according to its company website. “Accessible homeownership is an issue in Atlanta,” he told Business Insider. “Our goal is to provide homes at a price point where mortgages are equal to or less than the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment.” While Washington subscribes to accessible homeownership, he makes it clear he does not want to label Techie Homes’ efforts as an affordable housing project. “We change the way we view environments, and if we change the way we view environments, we’ll change the actual person and how they grow,” Washington explained in a video clip . “That’s the reason why I don’t adopt to affordable housing projects, because if you put people of all the same incomes in the same place, they will only see what that other person’s low...
Jessica Taylor has landed her coffee product in a new major retailer. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Taylor, a former Toyota diversity, equity, and inclusion business partner, became the founder of Ezra Coffee in 2021. The idea for the company stemmed from a soy and nut allergy developed by her sister who was also lactose intolerant. Taylor started conjuring recipes on a stove top, creating flavors that could be enjoyed without milk-based creamers. That passion and drive has now grown into an array of products sold through Ezra Coffee such as Candied Yams and Toasted Southern Pecan light roast coffee, as listed on its website. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ezra Coffee Company (@ezracoffeeco) Since launching, the company has secured placements in Target’s online store and was also stocked in more than 40 Texas-based H-E-B stores by October 2023. “This has been such a labor of love and an amazing experience, and I can truly say I could have not done this with out you...
Deion Sanders, “Coach Prime,” has become an investor in one of Iowa’s fastest-growing companies. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, BLK & Bold achieved this feat for the past three years for being disruptors in the coffee industry, making it onto the Inc. 5000 list. The company was founded in 2018 by Pernell Cezar and Rod Johnson and prides itself on delivering customers high-quality and freshly roasted specialty coffees and loose leaf teas such as chai, matcha, and lemon ginger, among others. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BLK & Bold Specialty Beverages (@blkandbold) “Accessibility to premium coffee and quality products go hand in hand, but it is important to normalize that experience in coffee,” Cezar told AFROTECH™ at the time. “When we talk about both, it’s easy to let go of the vision of the conscious consumer, especially in something as high commodity as coffee — the second-highest consumer beverage in America — but this does not have to be the case. When you...
Snoop Dogg appears to be globe-trotting. Snoop Dogg has been working as an NBC Olympics correspondent for the 2024 Paris Olympics and served as a torchbearer during the opening ceremony, NBC News reports. “I felt like Muhammad Ali,” Snoop told NBC News. “I found out that when you hold the torch, you’re a peace messenger.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by snoopdogg (@snoopdogg) Being at the Olympics could also be a wise business move for Snoop Dogg. Over 34.5 million viewers have already tuned in to watch the Olympics over its first three days across linear networks and digital platforms, an increase of nearly 80% compared to the Summer Tokyo Olympics in 2021, The Hollywood Reporter mentioned. Snoop Dogg has been sporting shirts featuring tennis player Coco Gauff. He also went viral for hyping up Team USA’s women’s gymnastics team while wearing a Simone Biles T-shirt and his trademark sunglasses, NBC News mentioned. @nbcolympics Drop it like it’s hot! 🔥 Jordan Chiles,...
By now, most office environments allow employees the option of working from home for at least some portion of the week. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic proved that working from home was a viable strategy for many industries, a wide array of employees have expressed that they actually prefer it over commuting into the office. Despite this trend, many executives, land developers and middle managers prefer to have some face time with their employees, believing that in-office standards are responsible for keeping productivity in check. While this may be true for some employees, many others have taken to a new trend called coffee badging, which appears to boost their productivity, while actually reducing the total amount of work they complete in a given day. Coffee badging is the latest cultural buzzword floating around office environments, centering on the flexible nature of the hybrid workspace. In order to break down how it impacts a return-to-office schedule, we’ll first have to...
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has a new business venture to add to his ever-growing portfolio. According to Boardroom, the three-time Super Bowl champion is taking his love for coffee to higher heights as a lead investor for Throne Sport Coffee, a ready-to-drink coffee beverage company that was launched Thursday (May 16). Putting his money where his mouth is, not only did Mahomes attend a nice chunk of developmental and departmental meetings for the company, but he also had samples of the coffee sent to his home every two to four weeks in 2023 to ensure that he was able to help the Throne Sport family create a “tasty, healthy beverage with mass appeal to compete in a crowded market.” “There were a lot of samples sent and the season worked out well,” Mahomes said. “We won the Super Bowl, so it must have worked. We’ve come up with a great product, and I think people will really enjoy them throughout the entire day, not be jittery, and not be sluggish after the coffee...
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University graduate Marcia Cox is paying it forward to another college campus. Cox, 23, is the co-founder of Kaldi’s Coffee House and Roastery, a Charlotte, NC, business that opened in January 2024, as reported by WTVD-11. Before going out on her own, Cox had worked as a Starbucks barista while in high school and college and excelled at her job duties while fostering customer relationships, an Instagram post mentions. She runs Kaldi’s with her father, Marcus, who has an extensive background spanning over 25 years in sectors such as banking, pet retail, and coffee. He has also served as a Starbucks regional operations coach for the Midwest region, based on the Instagram post. Kaldi’s Coffee House and Roastery sells apparel, tea, baked goods such as cookies, and specialty-roasted coffee with Cox sourcing the coffee beans from Ethiopia and handling the roasting process herself, per WTVD-11. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kaldi’s...
The legacy of the late Bob Marley remains prevalent. Bob’s musical influence extends globally, with Rolling Stone recognizing “Exodus,” his ninth studio album with the Wailers, as No. 48 on its list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” in December 2023. What’s more, his story is currently being told in a biopic across movie theaters. “Bob Marley: One Love” has earned $71.1 million domestically and $120.5 globally, according to Entertainment Weekly and Comscore (at the time of this writing). Though his life was cut short at 36, following a battle with malignant melanoma, t he Marley family continues to carry the torch of their father while also carving their own paths. At the time of his death, Bob did not have a will, and his inheritance was given to his wife, Rita, and 11 children. As AFROTECH previously told you, with that financial investment in each of his children, many have built on that foundation with net worths now reportedly set in the multi-millions. This includes...
Nathan Brown is the proud franchisee of a New Orleans, LA-inspired coffee shop. However, he didn’t grow up as a coffee consumer. Instead, the graduate of Indiana’s Ball State University developed the interest while working for a Big Four accounting firm, which he described as a “grind house.” “Working late hours pretty regularly, a part of the culture developed into a habit, and I became an avid coffee drinker,” Brown, 33, told AFROTECH in an interview. “As the years went by, I got more into quality. So, I started off getting any sugared-down caffeine I could find. Then, I graduated to drinking black coffee. Then, I started to be able to decipher the taste of coffee.” Brown moved from Indiana to Texas in 2015 and became a homeowner four years later. While living in Third Ward, a neighborhood in Houston, TX, he discovered the nearest coffee shop was a 15-minute drive. He then felt led to open a coffee shop closer to home, and it became possible with the help of a family member and...
The majority of high schoolers are securing jobs close to home, but Erin Polk is distinguishing herself by managing her own business. WLS-TV 7 reports Erin is the proud owner of Erin’s Cup, a coffee shop located in the Morgan Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL. The 17-year-old spoke the feat into existence when she was just 2 years old, and to her family, her business comes as no surprise. “‘We’ll get Erin a cup, We’ll get Erin a cup,'” her mother, Heidi Polk, remembers saying when her daughter was a toddler, according to the outlet. “And there’s how Erin’s Cup [came about]. She wanted a cup of coffee at a coffee house.” Erin’s Cup has been open for business for a couple months but already has loyal customers such as Ronnie Mosley, who has a liking for several menu items. “Macchiato, lemonade refresher is great, the chai tea is great,” Mosley said, according to WLS-TV 7. “If you come here, we’ll know you by name. Everybody is very close knit, it’s like family right here,” Erin...