AUSTIN — Alyssa Smith needs a recommendation.
The Austin American-Statesman reports it’s her initial time during Empowered Coffee in downtown Austin, and she’s not certain what to order.
Barista William Mullican, 21, is prepared to help. Get a Rwandan, he says. Iced.
Smith accepts his idea and takes a sip.
“It’s delicious,” she says.
It might sound like a standard morning exchange, though Empowered Coffee isn’t your normal shop. It’s a initial 100 percent thorough for-profit association in Austin and among usually a handful in a United States. All employees here have egghead or developmental disabilities, including Mullican, who has Down syndrome. The emporium non-stop in Mar inside RunLab, a sports medicine and training trickery where Jay-Z blares from a speakers and using boots double as flower planters.
Employees are obliged for all aspects of a shop, from brewing coffee to operative a register that’s versed with cinema in further to words. General manager Whitley Priddy pronounced she’s accessible to assistance as indispensable though “for a many part, they are totally independent.” In June, Mullican and barista Spencer Khan ran a emporium by themselves for a morning when Priddy was out of town.
In further to coffee, a emporium serves Tacodeli breakfast tacos, baked goods, tea and Topo Chico.
“And we have hats, aprons and coffee beans for sale,” says Khan, 22. “I like to publicize a products.”
Khan, who also has Down syndrome, commutes to work from Pflugerville, waking adult during 4 a.m. to arrive on time. This is his second job; he is also a bagger during H-E-B.
“I like operative here since it’s where all my friends work, it’s a fun place to be, and everybody is super nice,” pronounced Khan, who also works out weekly during RunLab with a personal tutor who donates his services. “I wish to work here forever.”
The patron bottom ranges from undercaffeinated athletes to congregation who make a special revisit since they’ve listened that within these walls, can’ts, shouldn’ts and won’ts do not exist. Today, Smith is visiting with her sister, Brittany Benoit, and Benoit’s 8-month-old encourage daughter, who has Down syndrome.
“I wish her to be means to have a pursuit if she wants to and be means to correlate with others and be partial of society, not distant from society,” Benoit said. “They’re lenient people and vouchsafing people have a event to make a cool income and learn and grow. Obviously, it’s tighten to my heart, since we wish for that for her.”
At a finish of his shift, Mullican poses for photos with a baby as Tammy Mullican, his mom and “Uber driver,” looks on.
“That’s one of a neatest tools of about this — I’ve seen a lot of relatives move their immature kids with Down syndrome in,” Tammy Mullican said. “As a primogenitor of a immature child with Down syndrome, we can demeanour and see what they unequivocally can accomplish.”
Tammy Mullican says she has left from treading H2O in her son’s early years to now being in astonishment of him. He’s a high propagandize connoisseur with 3 jobs — he also works during H-E-B and Russo’s New York Pizzeria — and progressing this year warranted a bullion award in a Special Olympics in golf.
Mullican is saving his gain — employees during Empowered Coffee make above smallest salary — to open a restaurant, William’s Place, where a sign will be “breakfast, lunch and hugs.” Tammy Mullican skeleton to be his initial customer.
“When he puts his mind to something and works hard, he accomplishes it,” Tammy Mullican says. “He loves to work.”