July 27th 2023.
Robbie and Destiny Wilkerson are a father-daughter duo from Chicago with a mission: warm the soul of their community with a new coffee shop. On Juneteenth, they hosted a soft launch for their shop, Urban Essentials Coffee Cafe. This August, they plan to have an official grand opening for the cafe in the Soul City Corridor.
Urban Essentials Coffee Cafe will be open to the public with a variety of goodies like coffee, cappuccinos, blended drinks, tea, cakes, muffins, sandwiches, and wraps. Even the mayor, Brandon Johnson, will be attending the grand opening.
Destiny is looking forward to the response from the community. She said, "With any new business, you get nervous, and you want it to go well. But it's been going well, and we're excited to see it come together."
The Wilkersons invested $65,000 into the cafe, hoping that it will encourage the Black dollar to circulate in the community. Robbie said, "All these building vacancies, to me, says there's not a lot of money circulating within the community. I'm one man, but it is my effort to create a new economic drive to our community. We hope we can inspire others to build, as well."
The Austin community might very well be inspired to build sooner than expected. According to Book Club Chicago, other groups are already working to heal the community of harsh realities. LIVE FREE Illinois is opening up 13 church resource centers to help heal gun violence trauma. This is a huge step forward for the Austin community and its residents.
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