After deciding to completely shut her espresso store, Mo Maravilla shares reflections on her time at Ok+M and the brand new issues which can be brewing.
BY MELINA DEVONEY
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Photographs by Melina Devoney
We featured Mo Maravilla and her Los Angeles espresso store, Kindness and Mischief (Ok+M), in our Aug + Sept 2025 print concern. Right now, we’re listening to from Mo on her current determination to completely shut down her store—and what’s subsequent for her on her espresso journey.
We are likely to lament the closing of small native companies, however Ok+M founder Mo Maravilla says that the tip was one thing to have a good time this time. And man, was the get together big; a line of keen clients wrapped across the block the whole lot of Ok+M’s final day of service on November 1, 2025.
I debriefed with Mo two weeks after completely shutting the doorways of Ok+M.
Making a Robust Determination
Regardless that “Lengthy Weekend” (a technique to maintain Ok+M afloat by reducing working hours) was working, Mo knew it was time to shut the e-book on Ok+M. Even with a manageable four-day schedule and extra secure money movement, the day by day bumps of proudly owning a enterprise began to really feel like mountains Mo not wished to climb.
She beloved slinging drinks nonstop behind the bar, however 10 years of all of the work behind the desk took a toll on her. “I’m drained, I’m not gonna lie,” Mo says. “The burnout was taking place and I didn’t need it to show into resentment.”
The very hub of connection that Mo dreamed of making labored out too properly—day by day café operations received in the way in which of connecting together with her clients.
“I don’t discover as a lot that means in being a ‘latte manufacturing unit.’ I discover that means in my group in these moments between drinks the place I really like connecting with you,” she instructed Barista Journal.
Ok+M was every part Mo as soon as wished for, and now she’s wishing for one thing else. She was itching for a inventive outlet larger than rotating seasonal drinks, and to share her ardour with clients in a format that wasn’t always at odds with making hire.
So, she shuttered Ok+M, in all its glory, earlier than it turned a shell of itself.
“I’m so privileged and fortunate that it was my selection (to shut),” Mo says. “I’ve felt zero unhappiness about any of this, which is loopy and exquisite. … I’ve solely felt gratitude and pleasure and, truthfully, reduction.”
Waking up from a full evening of sleep after Ok+M’s final day was the primary time Mo felt actually rested in a decade.
A Follow of Letting Go
Mo mirrored on how a lot she’s grown since signing the lease for Ok+M.
“Nobody’s ever anticipated to remain the identical individual after 10 plus years. However I feel small companies are handled in such a distinct vogue as a result of folks maintain them so dearly and with such beloved nostalgia that it’s exhausting to see them change,” she says.
Mo felt obligated to maintain trucking even when she was operating on empty. “I saved going as a result of I really like my crew and my group so dearly and fiercely,” she says. “Sooner or later you’re like, wait—I’m solely going for them and I’m not filling up any of my very own cup.”
Extra indicators pointed her on this path: Rikki Chavez, Ok+M’s espresso lead, launched into a sonographer diploma and Phoenix Canela, Ok+M’s ground supervisor, went full power into her espresso pop-up Revolve.
“I feel that is partly the universe being like, ‘Mo, everyone seems to be evolving and it’s time so that you can settle for it,’” she says.
Acceptance gave Mo a way of alignment and accomplishment.
“I’ve fulfilled so many targets of my life from that store and my life is so wonderful ’reason for it,” Mo says. “I noticed that I used to be dreaming up issues that have been totally different from what the store may give me.”
The one dream Mo is “pissed” she couldn’t understand was—like most small U.S. companies—offering sufficient monetary safety and employer-provided healthcare advantages to assist profession teammates, from baristas to co-roasters.
Defending Ok+M’s Legacy
Mo felt protecting of the café house and its legacy. In her final stand to serve the decade-old Ok+M group, Mo refused to let the lease go to a big chain or developer. Figuring out that two of her longtime staff, Arnold Basingat (Ok+M chef) and Sian Balauag (Ok+M barista and proprietor of plant enterprise City Tropicals), every dreamed of opening a brick-and-mortar, Mo hatched a plan earlier than the “vultures” descended upon Ok+M.
“I have to do every part in my energy to verify this house goes to somebody good,” Mo instructed herself, disregarding, for one final time, her decision to keep up wholesome work-life boundaries.
She supplied the house to Sian and Arnold earlier than asserting Ok+M’s closure publicly. With tears of their eyes, they accepted. They mixed their passions into the Filipino-American boutique & café, Kuyas, which can open in January. They’ll serve espresso that Mo continues to roast below her new model, Studio Tigre.
Mo’s Subsequent Chapter: Studio Tigre
A launchpad for Mo’s subsequent endeavor serendipitously emerged when a daily at Ok+M closed down his workshop in an East LA studio complicated. He supplied Mo the keys final January, and he or she has been furiously transforming it into Studio Tigre ever since.
The studio shall be Mo’s house for educating espresso courses and providing espresso omakase. With occasions and merch already up her sleeve, Mo is honing her omakase menu for launch this winter.
“I’ve so many enjoyable concepts that I need to do, however may by no means be finished in service ’trigger that’s simply too loopy. Studio Tigre is gonna give me that chance,” she says.
Mo will serve, slowly and deliberately, a multi-course menu that includes espresso roasted by herself and different roasters, and meals pairings created by Arnold. She’ll have time to speak with every visitor and inform the story behind every cup. With solely eight seats by reservation solely, the studio shall be an intimate curated expertise.
She’ll spotlight Filipino and Southeast Asian flavors in her recipes and serve them in ways in which make her “tickled and delighted.”
“I actually wanna play with textures and enjoyable dualities, like kindness and mischief,” Mo says.
At Studio Tigre, Mo may even dwell out her ardour for espresso training. She’ll welcome folks of all expertise ranges—from the coffee-curious to seasoned baristas—as long as “their curiosity is on fireplace,” Mo says.
She goals to foster an surroundings the place everyone seems to be stage with one another, and free from types of gatekeeping she confronted when studying to roast. “Doorways have been getting shut in my face,” she says. Plus, espresso training was prohibitively costly: a barrier that disproportionately impacts marginalized teams.
“The whole lot that’s me—and was Ok+M—is about accessibility. I’ve at all times tried to make every part really feel heat and welcoming regardless of the place you’re coming from,” Mo provides.
Mo shares that she’ll supply extra inexpensive espresso fundamentals and roasting courses to a handful of scholars at a time. “The opposite courses that I’ve seen, it’s so exhausting to get private time to get tremendous hands-on,” she says. “They usually’re within the vary of round $5k! What number of baristas can afford that?” She says she’ll additionally be certain that college students can ask questions, and put their nostril to the tasting cup and their eye to the sight glass.
Outdoors of the classroom, Mo rebranded the Ok+M espresso cart for pop-ups and is planning session providers. “I’m gonna assist different small companies make their goals come true,” Mo says. “I really like that shit, that’s my jam.”
On December 7, 2025, Studio Tigre and Kuyas debuted for a preview day of their new store, which was filled with Ok+M’s previous regulars and a budding new group. Comply with Studio Tigre and Kuyas on Instagram for extra updates.
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