Kindness and Mischief founder Mo Maravilla shares how she’s pivoting to maintain her enterprise afloat throughout making an attempt instances.
BY MELINA DEVONEY
FOR BARISTA MAGAZINE
Featured picture courtesy of Kindness and Mischief
Mo Maravilla is the founder and proprietor of Kindness and Mischief Espresso Roasters (Okay+M) in Highland Park, Los Angeles. She is a Filipino immigrant with a fierce, energetic, colourful presence and a self-proclaimed “villainous snigger.”
After 9 and a half years of enterprise, Mo was pressured to chop Okay+M’s enterprise hours from day by day to Thursday by way of Sunday this previous June. Though the transfer was a devastating necessity to maintain enterprise alive, Mo is actually excited for this new period that she coined “Lengthy Weekend at Okay+M.”
Almost a Decade of Kindness and Mischief
Though it’s simple to move by Okay+M’s small storefront on probably the most full of life road of Highland Park, as soon as inside, it’s unforgettable.
Each nook is colourful and stuffed with crops, disco balls, and seasonal decorations. An indication above the bar reads, “No further cost for alt milk since day one, b-tches.” Energetic music—possible T-Ache, Beyoncé or Dangerous Bunny—rounds out the vibe.
The complete Okay+M group proudly represents systemically marginalized communities and other people of coloration. Mo describes Okay+M baristas and cooks as “joyous” and “completely so good and sort.” Everybody on the group works arduous as might be within the café, the place they’re free to completely flaunt their personalities and values, even when that entails somewhat mischief.
Fostering this spirit is Mo’s number-one precedence. Since opening the doorways of her café, she has aspired to assist passionate baristas and cooks thrive in doing what they love, with out counting on a number of jobs to pay their payments. “We might not be doing all of the sh-t that we do if I wished to be wealthy. I’ve by no means wished to be that place that solely focuses on the underside line,” Mo says. “I’ve solely ever wished sufficient.”
On the top of Okay+M, Mo might fortunately give her group raises and deal with them to common workers outings. Nonetheless, like many small companies in Los Angeles, Okay+M by no means generated sufficient income to supply workers full monetary safety and medical health insurance. Mo continues to be decided to sometime make it occur, even in gentle of Okay+M’s latest monetary struggles.
Making a “Gnarly” Determination
Okay+M just isn’t distinctive relating to its waning gross sales over the past half-decade, particularly not in Los Angeles. Companies of all sizes haven’t been capable of escape blow after blow to the native financial system: the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the writers’ strikes in 2023, this yr’s Palisades and Eaton fires, and the Trump administration’s tariffs and ongoing stoking of social unrest.
“I had identified for fairly a while how dangerous it was getting, however I didn’t wish to pull the set off on doing something drastic as a result of I really like my group, I really like my neighborhood. I need (the café) to be open as many days as doable,” Mo says.
In the previous couple of years, Mo had put one among her favourite elements of the job—creating enjoyable menu gadgets and collaborating with mates and workers—on the again burner in an effort to simplify bar workflow and minimize prices. Okay+M had change into what “felt like a latte manufacturing facility,” with a line of baristas slinging an iteration of the identical seasonal drinks month after month.
“I really like our seasonals, however whenever you’re operating seven days every week making an attempt to outlive, there’s not a lot house for creativity, no bandwidth for brand new stuff,” Mo says.
Mo didn’t need Okay+M’s struggles to increase to the store, the place prospects might sense the misplaced religion and tanked morale as quickly as they walked in. This summer season, she lastly reached some extent the place she needed to grapple with closing Okay+M altogether.
Mo knew she’d remorse closing with out making an attempt completely all the things doable—all the things besides letting workers go or reducing their hours. However Mo had already minimize her personal pay, borrowed cash to make payroll, took out an Financial Harm Catastrophe Mortgage, and maxed out eight bank cards, totaling round $70,000.
After months of monitoring Okay+M’s funds and strategizing together with her group leads, “the maths was not mathing,” Mo says, “The writing was very, very clear on the wall.” Okay+M can be within the gap by summer season. And June confirmed Okay+M no reprieve.
Mo has realized to behave quick on what her coronary heart tells her. This time round, it advised her “change or die,” and that ready it out would solely dig Okay+M deeper into its personal grave.
So she made what she calls the “gnarly” resolution to shut up store half the week and make investments all the things in bringing prospects one of the best Okay+M expertise doable on the 4 days per week it could be open.
Valuing transparency, Mo first advised her workers the deal individually, then shared her monetary spreadsheets in a group assembly. As Mo anticipated, not everybody agreed together with her technique, which she attributes to the norm of corporations prioritizing the underside line. “It is vitally tough to unlearn that cash is a very powerful factor,” Mo says.
Redirecting Towards Pleasure
Mo calls Okay+M’s new format Lengthy Weekend. The technique nixes the demoralizing sluggish hours and maximizes the worthwhile ones. Staff keep the identical variety of weekly hours—they’re simply packed into 4 days of intense work. And he or she joins them behind the bar.
“Time’s gonna fly, and I be ok with having everybody on shift as a result of we want them,” she says. “We’re simply gonna get together all shift.”
Mo redirected Okay+M towards what brings her pleasure: sourcing distinctive espresso from new roasters, experimenting with flavors from world wide, collaborating with native companies, and diving deeper into the “enjoyable, nerdy sh-t.”
Understanding full properly {that a} sport plan primarily based on “type of bougie” and “undoubtedly coffee-nerdy” drinks was going to be “costly as all hell,” Mo thought, “If we’re gonna do that, we’re gonna exit like a vibrant, shining star.”
And the Lengthy Weekend menu actually goes all out. Drinks are break up into classes of “kindness” and “mischief.” The previous are signature drinks (regulars are hooked on “The OG Kindness” and the banana milk latte), and the latter are the brand new, rotating number of one-of-a-kind pourovers (e.g., SCOBY Anaerobic 72H and “Banana Break up” toffee culturing).
“I hadn’t had that a lot pleasure about our menu providing in a very long time,” Mo says of the expertise of dialing within the “mischief” pourovers. With extra time to breathe and brainstorm, Mo and her kitchen group are additionally arising with themed meals specials that includes cuisines from the world over, like an adobo mushroom breakfast burrito.
These three days that Okay+M is closed to the general public, nevertheless, won’t be quiet ones. Having efficiently hosted espresso lessons prior to now, Mo intends to supply up extra academic workshops and different exterior occasions Monday by way of Wednesday. “I’m so excited to have the ability to use the house in numerous methods to create accessibility in different methods,” she says.
Okay+M’s Strengths Poise “Lengthy Weekend” for Success
Main with authenticity and a “individuals first” mission, the Okay+M model is actually a mirrored image of Mo. “The one means I understand how to be is genuine to myself,” she says. “I don’t wish to put effort and time and sources into one thing that I don’t absolutely consider in.”
Mo’s definition of a “profitable” enterprise is one which cares deeply for its workers and prospects above all else. “Management is simply classes in humanity. Good leaders perceive how one can be a superb human to others, and likewise to (themselves),” she says.
Treating individuals with kindness and respect has all the time been Mo’s North Star. Her give attention to the well-being of her group and neighborhood is what units Okay+M aside, and its greatest energy is the group that follows go well with.
Mo’s confidence in her enthusiastic and devoted group going full drive into Lengthy Weekend by no means wavered. Because the chief, she exhibits as much as work every day and units the tone for a give-it-all-you-got tradition. She hires baristas who thrive within the hustle with top-notch latte artwork and customer support, and who can dial in and extract super-unique coffees to perfection.
Okay+M’s Strongest Advertising Asset Is Its Assist Community
Mo has efficiently broadened Okay+M’s attain and income stream by way of public espresso lessons, in addition to a cellular espresso cart; nevertheless, neither is as priceless because the neighborhood she has cultivated by way of shared values.
“If this isn’t your jam, then that’s cool. You don’t gotta be right here,” she says. “We have now all these wonderful people who come right here as a result of they wish to really feel seen and accepted.”
Mo says and does what she authentically feels on and offline. Her far-reaching involvement in her native and world communities, mixed with native word-of-mouth, organically grew Okay+M’s Instagram presence, which now boasts 13.1K followers and counting.
Okay+M’s enjoyable, vibrant Instagram grid is sprinkled with socio-political calls to motion and clear, considerate narratives. This resonates together with her buyer base, which is basically comprised of a various group of politically energetic creatives. Moreover, a good portion of them embody the 50% of shoppers who’re prepared to pay extra for supreme high quality and sustainable espresso.
“99.99999% of our buyer base are simply type, good, good individuals, artistic individuals. And that’s what you see mirrored behind bar,” Mo says.
Living proof: Upon listening to the Lengthy Weekend technique, one barista piped up straight away to ask, “What about our regulars who are available Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday?” Mo was touched by the barista’s real “individuals first” perspective.
Okay+M actually fosters a reciprocal relationship between its group and prospects. All through all of Okay+M’s difficult instances, regulars have continued to examine in on the well-being of the group, and even a number of have provided Okay+M monetary help.
“I knew so absolutely that my neighborhood would maintain me on this hell-ish second,” Mo says about launching Lengthy Weekend. “It looks like a child studying how one can stroll. However what feels so good and sure is that there’s a village serving to that child learn to stroll.”
Such sturdy help for Okay+M didn’t seem out of skinny air, after all; it was fostered with a goal. For Mo, organising store wherever should be performed with nice consciousness and intentionality of the encircling neighborhood. She has developed a deep love for Highland Park and has all the time aimed to offer again to the neighborhood.
“I absolutely consider that companies can come right into a neighborhood and be like, ‘Hell yeah, let’s do good by this neighborhood.’ However I additionally absolutely consider that a number of them didn’t do this and don’t give a sh-t. They see no humanity in anybody right here. They only see greenback indicators.”
Till the very finish, Mo will proceed to place her neighborhood first. “If I can’t uphold my worth system in the best way I run this, then I don’t wish to run it,” she says.
Mo would like to return to seven-days-a-week service finally, however it doesn’t matter what transpires, she’ll by no means see the Lengthy Weekend undertaking as a waste. Mo is steadfast in her dedication to making an attempt all the things she will be able to with out compromising her values.
This text initially appeared within the August + September 2025 subject of Barista Journal. Learn extra of the difficulty on-line right here without cost.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melina Devoney (she/her) is a barista and freelance author in Los Angeles zeroed in on espresso and agriculture. She goals to amplify the voices of farmers and a range of views throughout the espresso business, and she or he’s happiest when operating on wooded trails and dancing at concert events.
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