La La Land Cafe - Serving Good Coffee and Spreading the Importance of Not Being a Di*k

Coffee with a purpose? Sign me up! La La Land Kind Cafe- a cafe that set out on a mission to spread kindness and employs local foster children through their foster mentorship program. The brand recently opened their 4th location in Santa Monica, CA and it is proving to be their busiest location yet with over 10,000 customers in the door in the first 2 weeks!

The Santa Monica location has recently begun their youth program that employs local foster kids who have aged out of the system and are often facing homelessness to provide them love, a support group, and employment skills to set them up for success.

Identify LA got the opportunity to founder Francois Reihani, on the brand, the purpose, and simply how to not ‘be a dick.’

Identify LA: How is La La Land Kind Cafe different from other cafes?

FR: Our motto is kindness first coffee second. The only reason this concept ever opened was to normalize kindness and provide opportunities for youth who were aging out of the system. Being a cafe was secondary, and was the best concept we could choose because we wanted to touch as many people as possible. On the other hand, we have some of the most high quality and unique drinks you can find worldwide.

IDLA: What is the messaging behind the brand and what created you to build the brand with this message?

FR: Our mission is to normalize kindness, and our entire message falls in line with that. We believe in a world where human beings just genuinely care about each other, and felt that we were going in the opposite direction.

IDLA: In your opinion, how important is it to 'not be a dick'?

FR: Its as important as important gets. Its also the most important basic point of life. People forget that we are all human beings, we all have feelings, we all go through life. No matter what our personal opinions are, its important to love and respect each other. And at the very minimum, dont be a dick.

IDLA: Why did you want to launch the youth program? And what is the outcome you're hoping for?

FR: We want to prove that a business can and do a lot more than just profit cash. We believe the future of business should be 100% social entrepreneurship. So we set out to not only create a model that can be replicated by others, but to prove our point that a business can do so much more. If we become a big industry leader, we set an example for what the businesses of the future should be. Everyone follows a successful business model, and were here to make that statement.