Able Coffee Roasters blends inclusivity and community

Many of us start our day with a cup of coffee for a boost of energy. One shop in Huntington Beach is brewing more than just coffee. It’s boosting a labor force for a community that has historically been excluded.

At Able Coffee Roasters, it doesn’t feel like your typical coffee shop. Sure, people are hunched over their laptops, and there’s burlap sacks of coffee beans propped against the wall. But, it feels more calm than the bustling atmosphere of most cafes. In fact, it’s pretty quiet. It’s all done on purpose to feel inclusive…. Because this coffee shop primarily hires disabled workers.

Gertson: Iced coffee with oak milk?

Aidan Gertsen is often the first person to greet you and take your order.

Gertson: Six-fifty, Christina.

Able Coffee works with each employee to accommodate their needs.

For Gertsen that means giving him freedom with his hours when he has a panic attack and being mindful that his cerebral palsy affects the mobility of his hand.

Gertsen: They are more flexible with my schedule, they look for things you can do, rather than forcing you to do things you can’t do. They understand people with disabilities.

Adeel Asif and Anthony Palmeri own the coffee shop. As special education teachers they are committed to finding jobs for their students after they graduate. Often, six months in advance. But, the two had odds stacked against them.

According to the Bureau of Labor and statistics, the unemployment rate for adults with disabilities is nearly twice as high as those without disabilities.

It was difficult for them to find employers that were willing to accommodate disabled workers. So, Palmeri says, they created their own business.

Palmeri: We bought a commercial coffee roaster and we started roasting. But that whole thing is to have our students and our workers package the coffee after we roasted it.

That idea is now an expanding business. Workers do more than package coffee. They take orders, brew the coffee and make a variety of drinks from espressos to rose chai lattes.

Although their business is expanding, with a storefront in Huntington beach and one in fulleron , Palmeri says their primary goal has not changed.

Palmeri: As educators we both believe that there is a job for everybody and everybody is able to contribute in their own way.

The employees are given the space to learn and make mistakes. Asif ?? says It’s all about accommodations, even in the design of the coffee shop.

Asif: A lot of individuals with disabilities have sensory processing disorders or just different, you know, things that sometimes can be an overload or overwhelming. So we just wanted to keep things very simple, very organized.

The shop does feel simple and organized.There’s lots of space between tables and furniture for people move around. But manager Ally Lewis says what’s even more important is that it’s inclusive.

Lewis: Individuals with disabilities when they come in, they see it as a safe place immediately because they see the artwork on our murals or read the mission statement... I think we can try to tailor it to all different types of people coming in and the shop feels like a warm welcoming place.

For Able Coffee, it’s more than just a space to study or get a boost of caffeine in the morning. The words on the mural say it all – “community” and “love”.