The establishment offers job opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Brother Andre’s Cafe in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania serves gourmet coffee, baked goods, and sells handmade gifts.
The cafe is an outreach of Move a Mountain Missions. It provides employment opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The cafe was created by Patrick Fitzgerald and his parents, Terri and Mike. Patrick lives with autism and struggled to find work after graduating from his local community college’s food service program.
The idea for the cafe began as a kiosk at the Divine Mercy Parish Lenten fish fry in February of 2020. The cafe, named for the patron saint of caregivers, opened online in November of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Baked cookies and bagged coffee were sold along with merchandise online.
On October 2nd, 2021, the grand opening of the cafe was held at its first location at Epiphany Church in Downtown Pittsburgh. Recently, Brother Andre’s announced the opening of a second location in Bellevue at Assumption Church.
The second location offers the same menu as the first. Cookies, coffee, merchandise, and lunch foods are offered at both locations.
Patrick works at the cafe and has memorized the ingredients for “Patrick’s Famous Snickerdoodles” and enjoys baking the cookies sold there.
“I love to make all of the cookies. Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, chocolate chip peanut butter, gluten free peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, scones,” he said.
Patrick’s cousin Michael uses a wheelchair and also works at the cafe. They were the first two employees at Brother Andre’s when it opened. Patrick’s mother Terri said, “Patrick loves baking. He began making cookies for family and friends. He is really good at it, too.”
With the second location, Brother Andre’s will have 25 employees.
Sue Holleran, mother of Mickey Holleran who works at the cafe, said of Mike and Terri, “These two are heroes. They understand parents of people with disabilities. This is a special needs parent’s dream come true.”
