St. Paul’s new coffee shop wave is driven by young, Black and Indigenous entrepreneurs
Indigenous #Indigenous
For Jamie Becker-Finn, opening a coffee shop was never on her life to-do list.
But in late July, she opened Makwa Coffee less than a mile from where she now lives in Roseville and about 200 miles from where she grew up, on the Leech Lake Reservation.
In St. Paul and the surrounding area, this summer has seen a wave of new coffee shops, most of which were opened by Black, Indigenous, and women entrepreneurs. These shops are about more than just a quick caffeine jolt — here, coffee and other hot beverages become a way to connect with heritage, empower young people, and create welcoming spaces for people of all ages and identities.
Also a lawyer and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives for District 42B, Becker-Finn said she’s unexpectedly had more meaningful conversations with community members at Makwa Coffee than in years at her office in the Capitol.
“I think coffee shops have historically filled a role in communities that’s really about creating that safe space,” Becker-Finn said. “And that’s where it overlaps with my other work. Like, you’re a legislator — what? You’re an attorney? But it’s all community-building.”
A focus on community and collaboration also motivates Reyna Day, manager of Roots Cafe inside the Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center on East Seventh Street. Roots Cafe is staffed by teenage participants in the center’s internship program, who learn job skills and are involved in every facet of the shop, from creating the drink menu to decorating the space. Starting this fall, Day said, the cafe will have expanded youth hours Monday through Thursday evenings and will host financial literacy classes, tutoring, art workshops, cultural presentations, and more.
“It’s nice for our interns to come in and (see), this is how a healthy community looks like, where we’re all working with each other,” Day said. “I’m really big on that we can only grow once we extend ourselves beyond our communities as well. So yes, investing in ourselves and our communities is important, and if we don’t see what else is out there, we’re never going to really grow.”
Unlike Becker-Finn, Shaunie Grigsby has always had coffee shop dreams in the back of her mind. After earning a master’s degree in education, focusing on youth development and leadership, Grigsby left academia for a career in nonprofit youth work. But eventually, through this lens, she realized she could create a coffee shop as an intentional space to foster respectful relationships with young people, and Flava Coffee & Cafe was born on the corner of Dale Street and University Avenue. It’s a little over a mile down Dale Street from another recent opening, Abogados Cafe, the first Latin American-owned coffee shop in the area.
“I’ve always seen coffee shops as more than just coffee,” Grigsby said. “Just being able to form those authentic relationships with strangers intrigues me, and this could be cool if this happens with a younger person. A high schooler or undergrad comes into the shop; maybe you meet someone who could lead to an internship. You never know.”
With this intentional approach to lifting up marginalized and youth voices, these coffee shops reflect the kinds of places the women wished they had growing up.
“I grew up in the area, lived here my whole life,” said Day, whose family is Mexican and Indigenous. “And even when I was in high school, there was never really a spot to just chill, kick it, study, or have those resources available.”
Growing up in Detroit, Grigsby said, she had a similar experience. There wasn’t a community center or coffee shop to spend time with friends. When she and her friends would go to the library, she said, librarians scolded them rather than finding ways to create youth-centered programming or even to just listen to them — in her view, a massive missed opportunity.
Marcia Marquez Garcia, who was working behind the counter at Roots Cafe on a recent morning, says this speaks to the importance of coffee shops centered on young people like herself.
“A lot of older people tend not to listen to (young people), especially BIPOC youth,” she said. “They tend to get ignored a lot, or stereotyped. It’s a big struggle. So just learning to hear their stories and see what they need help with or want to succeed in.”
Becker-Finn said Makwa Coffee reflects the values she was raised with in modern Indigenous culture, which makes it particularly validating when queer and Indigenous customers become regulars. The shop does have some “Easter eggs,” she said, for folks in the know. For example, the deer antlers that hang over the fireplace came from an animal on her reservation that her family ate. Signs on the doors greet customers in the Ojibwemowin language.
Along with this broader symbolism, the coffee itself matters, too. Shop managers said their drinks are designed to reflect their personal and cultural backgrounds just as much as the physical space.
Besides defaulting to oat milk rather than dairy, Becker-Finn uses vegan caramel and maple to flavor the Makwa Cafe’s signature ziigwan latte, of which she said they’ve sold several thousand in their two months open.
“Maple syrup — people are like, ‘What’s the magic?’” Becker-Finn said. “And I’m like, ‘trees!’”
One of Roots Cafe’s best-selling drinks is the cafe de olla. It’s sweetened with the common Latin American raw cane sugar called piloncillo, which is typically sold in cone-shaped blocks. And at Flava Cafe, all the menu items are named after Black cultural icons, from Audre Lorde to Nina Simone. Grigsby’s personal recommendation was the bell hooks latte, with brown sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon.
Coffee doesn’t come from European countries, Becker-Finn pointed out. Growing, processing, brewing and drinking coffee is deeply woven into the lives of communities of color and Indigenous cultures all over the world.
“Whether you grew up in Puerto Rico or Somalia or the Leech Lake Reservation, there’s something about sharing time and space with someone over a hot cup of something, whether it’s tea or coffee,” Becker-Finn said. “That coziness, that humanness to it — that does transcend.”
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