Manifest a lifelong dream

Hey there! I’m Allison and it has been my life’s dream to own my own restaurant. A cafe I’ve worked at for a few years is selling and I’d be a FANTASTIC new owner. Buying and starting a business, however, is prohibitively expensive for the average joe and this opportunity came unexpectedly. Please help me make my dreams come true! If you’ve bought a beverage at a coffee shop this week, please consider donating the amount of money you spent(or more of course) to my cause!

Since I was a small child I have loved cooking and serving. I grew up learning how to cook and bake from my mother who loves eating and trying new things. I definitely share these traits with her. Her cooking foundation is a mix of Cajun and Lebanese but as I got older she started trying lots of new styles of cooking and seems to collect kitchen equipment. I love to play with the new mixers, blenders, breadmakers, pasta makers, whatever she has on hand! When I was little I often played pretend restaurant. I would write up menus and have my parents sit down and I would serve them. I still have one of those menus, “Chez Ally” spelled out in shaky letters. My first job was working for a friend’s family in a very popular and successful ice-cream stand in Massachusetts at age 14. In addition to ice cream, the stand served burgers, subs, and Chinese appetizers. I learned so much about service, quality, and the fast paced nature of restaurant work, and how much I LOVE it. After moving to Louisiana I worked as a server/bartender/hostess in a Mexican restaurant, a server in successful upscale BBQ place, a manager at a burrito chain, a Gaucha(which includes butchering, cooking, and serving)/bartender at an upscale Brazilian chain, a manager of a pizza bar, a full time cook at a seafood restaurant, a full time cook and barista at the café I’m buying, and the kitchen manager of a bar kitchen at a volleyball venue. I have loved so much of this work. I enjoy the pressure, and fast pace, the wonderful feeling of knowing when I have improved and how good I am at what I do. The core of my love of restaurant work, however, is the knowledge that the customers are having a good experience. Sharing good food with good people is one of the greatest experiences a human can have and I would love to provide a space for people to come and enjoy something excellent. A person being able to leave the house and go to a place where they feel comfortable, that is almost an extension of home, or in some cases, safer than home is what I want to create. I want the café to be a place where all kinds of people can come and feel welcome and safe and have their souls warmed by food and drinks prepared with love. Kids coming to study after school, or meet with their friends for tabletop games, older folks who may be a bit bored or lonely, business people for meetings and deskwork, partners on coffee dates, friends unwinding with brunch and mimosas, people looking for a safe space to do a marketplace exchange, anyone just looking for a good cup of tea or coffee and a friendly conversation to brighten their day. I want everyone to walk out of the café feeling better about humanity. I want my café to be a hub for joy. I plan to be involved in the community as well, as the previous owners were. There are a number of schools and churches, a fire station, a clinic, and many businesses around the café and I want to create a strong relationship with them. Please consider helping me make this lifelong goal a reality.