Coffee News
Cheery new cafe off Dallas' Lower Greenville brews coffee and kindness
A feel-good coffee shop and cafe is opening off Dallas' Lower Greenville Ave. Called La La Land Kind Café, its foundation is to serve good coffee and tea while employing foster youth. According to a release, it'll open at 5626 Bell Ave. on March 25.
La La Land Kind Cafe — which we'll surely end up calling "La La Land" or maybe even "LLLKC" but no, probably "La La Land" — boasts an extensive menu of coffees and teas, along with pastries and toast, all organic, with more foodstuffs to be added in the future.
It will also serve as a training ground for aging out foster youth. They will learn the basic fundamentals of job skills such as timeliness, cleanliness, customer relations, productivity, and teamwork.
La La Land was founded by 23-year-old Francois Reihani, who also founded a companion nonprofit called We Are One Project. The cafe's mission is to provide a place of employment for foster youth who have turned 18 and are no longer receiving assistance.
"The coffee shop/cafe is our flagship business set to employ and mentor these aging or already aged-out foster youth," Reihani says. "Through our paid program, we give them the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to thrive in the working world."
Ten percent of the 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.
"When people walk up, I want them to feel like they’re walking into heaven," Reihani says. "This is a place where guests can enjoy high-quality delicious food, coffee, and tea while supporting a great mission."
Reihani is a wunderkind who helped introduce the concept of poke to Dallas in 2016, as part of the team that opened Pok the Raw Bar at the West Village, which was one of Dallas' very first poke restaurants.
Reihani was also a nominee for CultureMap's Stylemaker awards in 2017.
At La La Land, the offerings include pastries, house-made toasts, and breakfast empanadas with bacon, egg, and potato. A drink menu comprises more than 50 beverages.
There are the usual espresso drinks such as lattes and cappuccinos, but there are also intriguing signature drinks such as a "campfire latte," with toasted marshmallow, chocolate, and graham cracker. A French toast latte has cinnamon and maple syrup. "The Buddha" is a latte with cardamom.
In addition to espresso-based drinks, there's a lineup of signature drinks made with matcha, including a Lavender Bloom latte with lavender and vanilla; and "Strawberry Fields," a matcha drink with strawberry and beet.
Only the highest-quality ceremonial grade matcha is used, sourced from one of the oldest family-owned farms in Japan.
Drink machines are unique as well, including an espresso machine that was 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.
A welcoming backyard area is adorned with string lights, cozy furniture, and a "Dog Parking" area for guests to let their dogs roam.
Joseph Palladino inside Palladino's Steak & SeafoodPhoto courtesy of Palladino's
The snazzy bar area.Photo courtesy of Palladino's