Café Augustine, which since 2015 has served food for paying customers and provided jobs and life-skills training for at-risk youth and young adults, is going in a new direction with a new locale.
Café Augustine for seven years operated out of the Newport Branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County on Market Street here near Boardman, said Father Ed Brienz, founder of the restaurant.
In the spring, Café Augustine will begin operating out of the retail space at the Western Reserve Transit Authority (WRTA) on West Federal Street and Fifth Avenue in downtown Youngstown.
“We had a good run at the library,” Father Brienz said, providing jobs and training for 450 at-risk youth and young adults,” and establishing a residence for those working there to better ensure a home environment that reinforces the training that the young people receive and the progress that they have made.
The local project is based on a similar program, Café Reconcile, that Father Brienz discovered in New Orleans when he was taking volunteers there to assist in recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina.
The program offers teens paid employment while also working with them to ensure that they have the necessary job and life skills to eventually find other employment, said Father Brienz, who also serves as administrator for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in McDonald, and as diocesan director of mission.
“These are kids who have not been able to find or hold jobs,” Father Brienz said, because of their disadvantaged background.
To qualify, participants must be at least working toward their GED (high school equivalency diploma) if they have not graduated from high school, and must pass random drug tests, Father Brienz explained.
Participants also go through hygiene training, financial literacy classes, and learn all aspects of the restaurant business, Father Brienz noted – from cooking to washing dishes.
Though Café Augustine achieved successes while operating at the library, Father Brienz said, “changing times and changing focus” required a new direction. He cited the issue of substance abuse, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other factors.
Café Augustine closed its operation at the library Oct. 31 but pursued the retail space at the bus station, which was previously occupied by Plaza Donuts, Father Brienz said.
The café will operate differently at its new locale, Father Brienz said. At the library, Café Augustine largely focused on lunch, though during some years for Lent they served fish dinners on Friday.
At the new location at the bus station, the café will operate from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. For breakfast, the Café will serve coffee, donuts and juice, Father Brienz said.
At lunch time, there will a somewhat wider selection but the lunch menu will be limited, he explained, to avoid placing excessive burdens on the workforce so that they can better focus on developing their life skills.
The café, which prides itself on its donuts, “will also be working on selling packages of donuts to businesses.”
The target date for a full opening is April 1, Father Brienz said, but there will be “soft openings” – as was done with their original location – where Father Brienz will invite select customers to come in order to give the staff practice before they are serving the wider clientele.
Father Brienz said that he is excited about the new direction because they will be able to attract bus passengers and pedestrian traffic and thus be able to draw in more customers.
“I’m especially grateful to the Church for allowing me to take on this effort along with my other duties,” Father Brienz said. “This is important because this where the Church should be – operating on the margins and reaching out to the disadvantaged, offering hope.
“This,” Father Brienz said, “is where Jesus would be.”
