A new coffee shop in Over-the-Rhine is promoting their radically different business model alongside their tasty brews.
Radical Bean Cooperative, located next to the cocktail bar Somerset, is entirely worker-owned—meaning all profits go right back to employees, and every major decision is made by the people who work there. The business, a first of its kind in Cincinnati, is all thanks to shop owner Rayan Saoud and his partnership with Co-op Cincy, a local organization that assists or funds cooperatively-owned businesses.
Radical Bean originally opened as Topia Co-Op, which was also a worker-owned coffee shop managed by Saoud and three others. But at Topia, the other owners pushed for a more “boutique”-style coffee joint, sporting pour-overs and elaborate lattes. When those three bowed out of running the business, Saoud closed for two months to shift the space into a gathering place focused on community outreach and affordability.
“I always say we’re a ‘coffee-second’ coffee shop. Our focus is becoming an organizing hub for the neighborhood. I’m Palestinian, and when I was growing up, food was a big part of community and socializing that really brought everyone together. But COVID killed that in America,” he said. “Other than, like, going to church, a lot of people don’t come together to just talk anymore. That’s why I make sure the shop stays accessible and affordable for everyone. We’re humans, we’re social creatures. It’s important to have a place to talk.”
But just because Saoud’s shop is “coffee-second” doesn’t mean the menu isn’t eye-popping. Ethically sourced, single-origin beans from local brewer Urbana provides the backbone for most of their product; at Radical Bean, a drip coffee is just $2. (“I know inflation is a thing, but what happened to the dollar menu?” he jokingly asks.)
Other traditional coffee options like an Americano, a cappuccino, and cold brew lattes adorn the menu for no more than $5 each. The shop also offers tea sourced from Japan, China and Sri Lanka. And the real shocker: Saoud makes several “specialty drinks” from scratch in-house—like chai, matcha, lemonade, horchata and agua fresca. Soon, he plans to leverage his experience as a bartender to provide the shop with a lengthy list of mocktails as well.
Many items on the menu were ideas conjured up by the shop’s workers. Saoud often comes back to an episode of Kitchen Nightmares he saw, where Gordon Ramsay chided a chef for saying he wouldn’t eat his own food.
“Gordon Ramsay said, ‘This is terrible.’ And the chef goes ‘Yeah, no, I would never eat the food here.’ At our shop, we think if you wouldn’t do that, then why would you work here? I’m ideally trying to cultivate an environment where people are proud of what they put into the world,” he said.
For Saoud, who has worked in the hospitality industry for over a decade, opening the shop helped him “realize I didn’t have to get home from work each day and hate my job.”
“With how much everyone is struggling with the current economy, just from a moral standpoint, I think it’s amazing that everyone involved gets access to the profits the business creates,” he said. “Opening this place enhances the love I had for hospitality because now I can approach it with ethical wages as well, which was always the missing piece for me. It’s so nice to go to work and not get home feeling upset or stressed out.”
Saoud points to popular UC student staple Highland Coffee House as a model of his end goal for the space, with a focus on creating more nighttime options for Cincinnatians that don’t revolve around alcohol. Radical Bean currently hosts game nights, karaoke, tea parties, cat adoption events and more.
But his biggest focus is helping the local community and the world at large. Currently, the shop is the only business outside of Chicago to support the Palestinian art and activist group PALSHIELD, which provides direct emergency support to citizens in the Gaza Strip.
He also regularly hosts workshops for local students to learn “all the things that they don’t get to learn in public school,” whether that’s cooking or doing taxes. He’s currently in talks with Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney to promote the space as an educational hub. Soon, he’ll be organizing food drives for the community in nearby Grant Park similar to the ones downtown in Piatt Park.
“Once you pass north of Liberty Street, Over-the-Rhine can almost feel like a ghost town. But there are people that live here who would love to have events and opportunities that the other parts of the city get,” Saoud said. “I’m doing my best to create opportunities for the local neighborhood by utilizing my position. And I’m trying to create a feeling locally that we should all be taking care of each other.”
Over-the-Rhine is one of Cincinnati’s most rapidly developing neighborhoods, but Saoud is trying to provide a different vision for the area.
“My ultimate goal is obviously to help properly develop the area, which we can do without gentrifying and kicking out our neighbors,” he said. “This is the home they’ve known for generations, and they deserve to be here. And I don’t feel unsafe here. I don’t feel like I’m in danger or anything like that. I have nothing but love for these people, and I just hope I can provide for them.”
Radical Bean Cooperative is located at 123 E. McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine, and is open Thursday-Monday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. along with their special night-time events. For more information, visit the shop’s official Instagram page.
