KANSAS CITY, Kan. — For TJ Roberts, making coffee is like a puzzle.
"Taking stuff apart and putting it back together to me is fun," Roberts said. "There's reverse engineering that happens to make what we're doing right now."
His coffee shop Kinship Cafe in Kansas City, Kansas, pieces together coffee, community and his own story.
"I have seven fingers, this is abnormal to a lot of people in the work that we do," Roberts said. "Growing up in an all-white space, I was the first African American to graduate high school in the history of the high school, there was all these things."
It was a process that wasn't easy.
"To be a trailblazer, a visionary or someone that's like gonna create influence, you have to have a thick skin," Roberts said. "There was a lot of work I went through that gave me the ugly cries, that gave me the bad days, the bad vibes, but I had to go through it and a lot of that time was in the process of building this (Kinship Cafe)."
Kinship Cafe is a place he hopes can inspire the next generation.
"When people come in from a younger age, they get to see where they want to become," Roberts said. "They see these different business owners represented in our space."
From local art to plants, Roberts highlights other local business owners and creators in his store.
"If you're selling something from this location, we don't take profit from your business," Roberts said. "We know that business owners like us spend their own money, their own hard-earned money to do these side hustles and create things from their hands to get their kids through school, put better food on the table, have a new insurance policy they couldn't afford on their own."
He also said he knows that some business owners are working a second, and sometimes even third job to make that happen.
"Why would I need to take money from them as a business owner?" Roberts asked.
So whether you're a creator looking for a space to sell your work, or you're just looking to enjoy a hot cup of coffee, anyone can fit in the puzzle that is Kinship Cafe.
"We have a phrase: 'Sip with intention,'" Roberts said. "I think people are all in different places where they need each other and kinship is all about that. It's in the name. It's in the community. It's in the way we serve people."
Roberts recently won $5,000 through a pitch competition from Toolbox KC. The funds will be used to expand the cafe's outdoor patio.
To learn more about upcoming events, check out Kinship Cafe's Facebook page.
