Not Your Average Joe

[Pete]

Coffee with a purpose: Not Your Average Joe's mission is “to inspire our community by including students and adults with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities in the creation of exceptional coffee in an encouraging atmosphere.”

NYAJ recently received the Mayor's Committee on Disability Concerns' Employer of the Year award.

They are doing this great work at five area locations: Midtown (1227 N Walker), Downtown (300 Park next to the library), Norman (1001 Elm) and two Homeland stores (9225 N May & NE 36th & Lincoln). They also have a shop in Broken Arrow.

Great people are serving great coffee, expresso and teas; each location has a food menu.

You can also donate to their wonderful cause at nyaj.coffee.

[TheTravellers]

Here I go again with my horrible negativity, apologies but just speaking the truth. We've tried them multiple times at multiple locations (lattes, usually a specialty one), and they're super-weak and take forever to get them done (not sure why it takes so long because the disabled folks are not the ones working the espresso machine, they have other tasks to do). I applaud what they're doing and would love to give them business, but the only thing we'll buy from them are the baked goods (from Quincy Bake Shop). And it's not just me, read Yelp! Hate to say these things, but I don't want anybody to go in there and have their expectations blown out of the water (and not in a good way).

[cappa]

Here I go again with my horrible negativity ... And it's not just me, read Yelp! Hate to say these things, but I don't want anybody to go in there and have their expectations blown out of the water (and not in a good way).

They have a 4.5 star rating on Yelp and 4.8 on Google.

[TheTravellers]

They have a 4.5 star rating on Yelp and 4.8 on Google.

Just relating our experience, and we know coffee - we've had good coffee all over the USA (and in Paris), and this was not it any of the times we tried them. For reference, we think Scooter's and Dutch Bros lattes are pathetic - weak, not enough syrup (when we get it), not hot enough. We generally don't do *$ anymore, and Summer Moon in Mayfair is our go-to when we can't get to Classen Coffee As I said, great concept, hope they do well, but we're not going to be customers. Here's a sample of some of reviews that support our opinion of NYAJ:

The service is quite slow.
I bought some beans to grind at home and the coffee has been weak.

Otherwise, be prepared for long wait times

The espresso was so feeble that it was practically nonexistent for both the drinks that I ordered (the "Mocha", and the "Drink That Must Not Be Named").
The syrups were so insubstantial that when switching between the two drinks ordered, I had to swish the drink around in my mouth like I was Niles Crane during the Corkmaster Competition; I was trying to figure out which drink was which.

My fiancé ordered another iced drink and we waited about 10 minutes while she talked to another employee. No other orders were placed during this time

this was weak coffee to begin with

I was like did they leave out the expresso, and where's the rest of the spices? It was probably the weakest dirty chai latte I've tasted.

[DoctorTaco]

This place is every bit as good as Stella Nova in terms of coffee. Not in the same territory as Clarity/Elemental but it is not trying to be. But their light roast coffee is fine and I like their social mission. I don't drink sugary drinks so can't speak to that.

[jn1780]

Stella Nova ownership donated all their stores to Not Your Average Joe's. That's a lot of brick and mortar stores to absorb. I also doubt they woke up one day and decided "hey, let's donate our business". They wanted out for some reason.

https://www.news9.com/story/677616b4...6z8VwpAEVBj-ig

[Pete]

Stella Nova ownership donated all their stores to Not Your Average Joe's. That's a lot of brick and mortar stores to absorb. I also doubt they woke up up day and decided "hey, let's donate our business". They wanted out for some reason.

There was this in the KFOR story:

Even though this was a huge donation, it still costs a lot of money to merge the two entities. They still need $400,000.

Sounds like Stella Nova was in debt and obviously there is a big tax deduction when donating to a charity.


John Kennedy (owner of Stella Nova) did something similar in the 90s when he donated First National Center to Feed the Children to get out from under it:

the charity was given the tower and adjoining office annexes by John Kennedy and Mike Samis, who took the tax write-off from donating the troubled property and kept the more profitable adjoining parking garage.

Separating FNC from the Main Street Garage (built to serve FNC and physically connected to it) contributed heavily to its demise and subsequently required hundreds of millions of public money to renovate including converting much of the office space into a parking structure.

[TheHorseman]

There was this in the KFOR story:

Sounds like Stella Nova was in debt and obviously there is a big tax deduction when donating to a charity.
John Kennedy (owner of Stella Nova) did something similar in the 90s when he donated First National Center to Feed the Children to get out from under it:

I have to agree. This sounds quite odd. There's a Stella Nova across from Guilded Acorn and another Starbucks going in downtown. A lot of competition. I wonder how Stella Nova was doing downtown.

[jn1780]

Thanks for the historical background.

No doubt some of the 800,000 mentioned in the News9 article to make the Stella Nova locations 'more accessible' was just to facilitate the merger. Certainly sounds better though in a fundraising campaign.

[TheTravellers]

Stella Nova ownership donated all their stores to Not Your Average Joe's. That's a lot of brick and mortar stores to absorb. I also doubt they woke up one day and decided "hey, let's donate our business". They wanted out for some reason.

https://www.news9.com/story/677616b4...6z8VwpAEVBj-ig

Ugh, we hate going to NYAJ, tried them 3 times at 2 different locations and it took fooooooorever to get our drinks every single time, and they just weren't that good, decided long ago to not ever try them again. Summer Moon in Mayfair is our regular place now.

[PhiAlpha]

Ugh, we hate going to NYAJ, tried them 3 times at 2 different locations and it took fooooooorever to get our drinks every single time, and they just weren't that good, decided long ago to not ever try them again. Summer Moon in Mayfair is our regular place now.

Yeah I appreciate their mission but they suck MASSIVELY compared to every other coffee shop I frequent. Midtown location was way better when it was Hank’s. I feel like this is going to be very difficult for them to absorb unless they have a big time plan in place. Pretty disappointing.

I hate that I feel this way but there has not been one single example of this type of second chance focused restaurant, in OKC or Tulsa, that I’ve been to that has been remotely worth revisiting. Often mediocre service and a mediocre to bad product. It’s a good idea and noble one but I’ve just yet to see an example of it working well in a restaurant.

[TheTravellers]

Yeah I appreciate their mission but they suck MASSIVELY compared to every other coffee shop I frequent. Midtown was way better when it was Hank’s. I feel like this is going to be very difficult for them to absorb unless they have a big time plan in place. Pretty disappointing.

I hate that I feel this way but there has not been one single example of this type of second chance focused restaurant, in OKC or Tulsa, that I’ve been to that has been remotely worth revisiting. Often mediocre service and a mediocre to bad product. It’s a good idea and noble one but I’ve just yet to see an example of it working well in a restaurant.