In Alex Pikul’s experience, “it takes a village to make a business work.”

So it has been with Kind Cafe in Fairhope, which Pikul opened in November three years ago. “Just the way that the community has embraced us and, and accepted us, but also helped us along the way,” he said. In September, Kind Cafe was named an Alabama Emerging Retailer of the Year.

“Before the business opened, I sent Mayor Sherry Sullivan an email, and said, ‘Hey, I would love to learn about you. I’m trying to open this concept.’ She was willing to meet with me,” he said. “Same thing happened at the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce. I just walked in there randomly one day, said, ‘Hey, I have this concept I’m trying to open,’” and the chamber has been an “amazing resource for us.”

“I randomly met William ‘Bill E.’ Stitt (owner of BILL-E’s Brands) at a men’s group. He’d never met me,” Pikul said, but “I asked to get coffee with him. He’s been a mentor ever since. He’s always been there to support me.”

In fact, one of the most popular bagels on Kind Cafe’s menu is the Bill E’s Bacon, named for the brands’ signature bacon. Besides Bill E’s bacon, the plain bagel comes with egg, sharp cheddar cheese and Sriracha mayonnaise. “We’ve sold over $200,000 worth of his sandwich since we opened,” Pikul said.

Mission intertwined with community

“At its core,” Kind Cafe “is a bagel and coffee shop specializing in nitro cold brew and New York style bagels made fresh every morning,” says Pikul, but the mission goes much deeper than providing quality coffee and bagels.

Kind Cafe “has evolved into a cornerstone of Fairhope, reflecting Pikul’s commitment to his local community,” said Bill E. “The mission of Kind Cafe … is deeply rooted in supporting local nonprofits and fostering community spirit.”

The eatery “has quarterly service activities with local nonprofits to raise awareness and funds to support the nonprofits,” donating 3% of total sales to local nonprofits in 2023, said Casey Williams, president and chief executive officer of the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce. Pikul also “allows his team to have paid days off to volunteer with a nonprofit of their choice and supports other start-up entrepreneurs by carrying their products,” she added. For those reasons, in 2022, the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce honored Kind Cafe with its Service Award.

Coffee and bagels are on the menu, but Kind Cafe offers much more. ((Brandon Robbins / Alabama Retailer)

Besides Bill E’s Bacon, Kind Cafe regularly partners with and features the specialty food ingredients of other local businesses. One example is Reney’s Honey Butter, a Mobile business that has created 60 flavors of sweet and savory butters. Reney’s Peach Honey Butter bagel is a recent Kind Cafe bagel flavor crafted from that partnership.

“We’ve found that the more involved we are in the community, like promoting other local businesses, the more we see growth in sales,” Pikul said.

Empowering and nurturing employees

Training the 14-member Kind Cafe team also plays a pivotal role in the success of his business, Pikul said. Members of the team have attended a coffee school in Dallas and gotten in-depth bagel training in New York City.

“We focus on our team’s needs,” said Pikul, including doing “yoga, breathwork and other team-building exercises, allowing them to work better together and ultimately pass that on to our customers in a better experience.

“We truly care about our employees and they, in turn, truly care about our customers,” he continued. “The team gets to know the customers, make them feel appreciated and warm and welcome when they’re here in the cafe. Their warmth and kindness continue to trickle down to our customers, who then take that out into the community.”

Pikul related a story about one of the cafe’s delivery drivers ordering a gluten-free meal from another local restaurant and delivering it, along with flowers, to a customer at a local hospital when the hospital visitor mistakenly ordered a breaded product from Kind Cafe. “The team is inspired to take care of the customers, and they know that they have the authority to” go the extra mile, Pikul said.

His team, Pikul said, “is the face of Kind Cafe and our most important asset. They’re the ones that execute our ‘people first, kindness always’ vision every day.”

Kind Cafe

kindcafe.community

108 N. Section St. in Fairhope

Follow Kind Cafe on Facebook and Instagram.

Hours:

6:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Mondays

6:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday

7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

This article originally appeared in the November 2024 Alabama Retailer.