Serving Up Kindness

At the Q Kindness Cafe in St. Paul, Minnesota, you get a bit of kindness served with your meal. The owners are a husband-wife team, Jimmy and Lisa Metwaly. Jimmy bought the cafe 15 years ago, but when it was struggling 2 years ago, Lisa, who is a life coach, became a partner in the restaurant and introduced kindness to the business model. The cafe is decorated with quotes about kindness. The staff leads by example, by passing out bouquets for customers to share with others, and by handing out $5 gift certificates. There is a kindness wheel for patrons who want to give it a spin -- it's like a prize wheel, except the prize is awarded to someone else. The customer buys the item that the wheel lands on, and it's given to the next lucky stranger who happens to order that item. When the restaurant was burglarized last January, the thieves stole $250. The owners' reaction? They gave away $100 in hand warmers to their customers as an extra act of kindness.

Q Kindness Cafe
WCCO story