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'Crazy, but not unusual': Black coffee shop owner reacts to Starbucks arrests

Millete Birhanenaskal is one of a handful of black business owners in Denver and says even though the neighborhood is changing, a sense of community has been her success.
Credit: Byron Reed, KUSA

When businesses are grown from the ground up, some teachable moments are expected along the way.

At the Whittier Café in Denver, that journey started when owner Millete Birhanenaskal opened 4 years ago.

“I am originally from Ethiopia,” Birhanenaskal said. “We’re an African coffee shop. Coffee comes from Ethiopia and most people don’t know that so let’s teach people,” Birhanenaskal said.

Credit: Byron Reed, KUSA

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Birhanenaskal's coffee shop is the only African espresso bar in Denver and has been part of the Whittier neighborhood since she started. Despite that, Birhanenaskal says black-owned businesses go back further than that in the area.

“Whittier is a historically black community," Birhanenaskal said. "5 Points and the whole area used to be the only place African Americans could live and buy property.”

She’s one of a handful of black business owners in Denver and says even though the neighborhood is changing, a sense of community has been her success.

“I would say maybe 30 percent of our patrons are black -- which is huge in Denver -- but a majority of our customers are not, but we all share a common belief around justice and social justice,” Birhanenaskal said.

So when Birhanenaskal heard about the arrest of two African American men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, she wasn’t shocked.

Credit: Byron Reed, KUSA

“What happened in Philadelphia is crazy, but not unusual unfortunately,” Birhanenaskal said.

Birhanenaskal sees the need to give her customers an option and hopes what happened in Pennsylvania is a teachable moment for this neighborhood going through a change.

“We exist because of coffee shops like the one in Philadelphia,” Birhanenaskal said. “I think when people come here, they can just tell that something’s different, but the word I hope that people take away the most is community.”

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