Serving robust Vietnamese coffee and granola made in-house, the mission here is to support refugees and those seeking asylum by providing jobs and access to vital resources, including English and computer classes.
The space is tucked away inside an office building and at first you may wonder if you’ve found the right address (don’t worry — you probably have).
While pulling into the parking lot of this tenant building, you might wonder if you're in the right place. If you take the first hallway to the left, you'll find that you are.
Danielle Beller
“I started out doing coding, and I was really good behind the desk," Gow says. "I was doing really well, but [during] the first term of this administration, I started to feel unhappy with what I was seeing. I started to feel unhappy with myself, and that’s when I decided to do something for other people, so I quit my job and it’s changed my life.”
Gow was a refugee from Vietnam during her childhood, which led her to feel particularly called to help this population. At Be Kinder, she employs refugees and connects them with resources and opportunities, including English classes offered within the same building and training in both soft and hard skills at the cafe.
“I chose [to help] the refugees because that’s where I came from," she says. "I was one of the boat people from Vietnam and when we came to the U.S. back in the '70s, it was really hard. There are a lot of stages where we might not make it because there are pirates on the sea, and we might get shot. Hunger, poverty — there’s a lot of that. Finally, when we made it over here, I found that the country did not welcome us. There was anger, and that was something new I had to face.”
She says there's still a lot of fears and misunderstandings about the refugees. "Who we are, what we are … we’ve been labeled as something bad when in reality, refugees are people who did not ask to leave. We were forced to leave our country,” she said.
With Be Kinder, she wants to create a space where refugees can enjoy themselves while they work.
“I love coffee and I love the concept of community. It turned out to work really well because I want the refugees to be in a community where they get to see the people and people get to see them and they get to practice their English,” she says.
The brown butter cookies, made by Gow, have a richer flavor than your average chocolate chip cookie. These are a perfect companion to a chai latte. Dip it in the chai and it tastes pretty much like Christmas. We loved the blueberry muffin as well. An Earl Grey loaf cake and strawberry guava hand pies are also on the menu. Be Kinder also serves lunch, including gyros.
Its Vietnamese cold brew might be our favorite thing we tried. Hazel-nutty, not too sweet, creamy and all around everything you'd want in a cold brew.
Danielle Beller
Bags of Be Kinder’s granola are sold at two local Central Market stores (Preston and Royal and Midway and Northwest Highway) as well as at the cafe and through its online store. Be Kinder also sells, of course, its food and drinks, as well as fresh coffee beans and merchandise. Every purchase directly supports the organization and its employees.
“If more people are buying from us and are buying from Central Market, it immediately creates jobs,” Gow said. “If we don’t have the money or people don’t come here, we’re not making enough. That money goes directly to the employees, so the more orders we have, the more we can sell, the more people come, the more revenue we have, and [employees] can have more hours and more pay. It’s directly impacting them.”
If the community can embrace them, she said, she hopes to expand their open hours and in the future, it is her goal to open more locations.
“If we can help someone and get them integrated into the community and in this country, they can turn around and help the next person,” she says.
Plated Stories, a book by Refugee Services of Texas featuring recipes from refugees, human trafficking survivors and asylum seekers, is for sale in the cafe alongside jewelery and other merchandise.
Danielle Beller
“Imagine a group of refugees coming over here and they have a place like this to feel safe and to work and to feel accepted. What would that do for our community and our city? It says a lot about who we are,” she says.
Be Kinder Coffee, 6500 Greenville Ave., No. 170. Open Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
