With Love - Part 2

Here’s part two of our interview with Andrew McDowell, founder of With Love Market and Cafe. If you didn’t catch part one, check it out here and then come back!

Like most small businesses, especially newer ones, With Love had a lot to navigate as the pandemic hit at a time before they really had a chance to establish themselves and build a dedicated customer base. Check out the interview below where I talk with Andrew about how they shifted focus during that time, as well as the dreams he has for the future of With Love.

What have been a couple of difficult situations or seasons With Love has faced, and what has helped you move through those times?

Every season has its challenges; whether that's keeping the business open because we're growing our customer base, or evolving because the community's evolved. [A well-known grocery store chain offering affordable, healthy options] opened in 2017 after this community had been petitioning them for over 10 years. And I was a part of that group saying, “Please come into our community. We need healthy food options.” And they kept saying, “No, your community's not good enough for us.” And then, surprise! A local university brings them in. But we had been open for a year by that point, after three and a half years of planning. So it had been four and a half years of us saying, you know what, if they're not gonna do it, we're gonna do it. And then when they came in, it completely changed everything and we weren't open long enough to have built long-term grocery customers.

So that almost put us out of business and we had to figure out how to stay on mission while pivoting the business toward sustainability. It was a really challenging season that took several years and lots of money to figure out. And then when we did figure it out, we had a pandemic. When that happened, we were able to lean on our grocery infrastructure and provide a ton of food to families in need and to organizations that wanted to serve their constituency but didn't have the ability to.

When the pandemic first hit, I worked 40 straight days, 12 to 15 hour days, not a day off, and was completely exhausted. But at the same time, I was reinvigorated because I had to be creative again. I had to find new ways to serve, and my passion was reignited. So that season of challenge actually took me from a place of almost burnout from five years of trying to figure everything out, to now catching fire again. I've been running on that for a while with this new season of development and growth.

And now we have a second location, we're about to open a third location, and are planning locations four and five right now. I’m really just focusing on that, and that's all coming from the passion that was reignited at the beginning of the pandemic. The pandemic was really challenging and hard for a lot of people. But for me it also kickstarted something that needed to be kickstarted again.

What is your favorite food and drink item on the menu? 

I'm a Cold Brew addict. I drink cold brew every day. If I need an alternative drink, I drink the Horchata Cold Brew. If I need a smoothie, I love the Fuego smoothie because it's got tons of vitamins and it's delicious. On our food menu I love mixing soyrizo and chicken together in my burritos.

What are the most popular things that people order here?

At this location [on Vermont], the Mint2Be and the Peanut Better are the most popular smoothies, and the Horchata Latte is by far the most popular coffee drink. In terms of food, I would say our beast burritos which are giant burritos. People love them because they're very shareable, and you can have two meals out of it. Our breakfast sandwiches have also become really popular. 

One last question. As you think about the next few years, what are your hopes for With Love, or even personal goals you have outside of your business?

If everything goes well, by next fall With Love will have quadrupled in size in terms of the community impact and the customers we are able to serve. We will have three to four locations by then. And each year we hope to be able to double in size for the next five years. We have a lot of growth plans. But even if we don't meet any of those goals, we will have made a difference. And that's cool. It's great to be able to add layers of icing on the cake that we are all so proud of. I'm really thankful for that.

Personally I'd really like to find somebody I can train and raise up to take over running the business in the way that I do. I envisioned myself as the starter with the goal to empower and to equip somebody to run everything. And at that point I will move into a larger visioning capacity. But still very much involved personally.

My wife and I had our first son, Jack, who was born in October 2022. And we are hoping at some point to have at least one more child whether that be naturally or through adoption. So we are exploring what God has for us in that. I do hope one day to be able to empower groups in other cities that face a similar challenge that we face here in South LA of access, affordability, safe spaces, and jobs and teach them how to do it in a way that they have a greater chance of success.

I want other social enterprises to succeed at a much higher rate than they currently do. And I've realized how hard it is. Each year there's been something that's almost shut us down. Almost every single year there's been something so big that we could have ended up closing because of it. But God's gotten us through. And I don't believe that's a vain thing. I don't think it's for our own personal benefit. I think there's a bigger thing to come out of the lessons we're learning. And so I'm hoping to be able to vision for that and see where it takes us. 

With Love Market and Cafe is a community-owned for-profit Social Purpose Corporation. With more than 35 co-owners of the business and an independent 501(c)3, With Love Community Programs, it is positioned well to partner with and advocate for their community. They’re located at 1969 Vermont Ave. They recently opened a second to-go location at 235 E. 12th St. Follow them on Facebook or Instagram (@withlovela_) to be up to date on all that’s happening there, and check out their website!