Interested in a sweet treat of the coffee kind and a bacon-egg biscuit or savory waffle? Well, Josh Cobb and LaTia (Tia) Willams sure are. Both of these young adults work at A Latte Friends, a quaint coffee shop located at10530 Auto Mall Pkwy in D’Iberville, Miss., that offers food, beverages, and T-shirts. And more importantly, A Latte Friends, first and foremost, promises to provide employment opportunities for people with special needs while also keeping prices affordable for community members.
     A Latte Friends has a unique business model, as it is one of only a few businesses in the state of Mississippi (and possibly the only along the coast) which specifically employs individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities as its primary workers. The coffee shop enables young adults with special needs to grow their job and interpersonal skills whilst simultaneously earning money and forming friendships with fellow “Superstars.”
     Known under the title of Superstar, A Latte Friends employee LaTia Williams does everything from “frappes…muffins, biscuits, and waffles,” though her personal favorite food the coffee shop provides is definitely the savory waffles.

     Meanwhile, Superstar Josh Cobb says that in addition to doing frappes, he likes “doing the cashier…or doing the cards,” and the bacon-egg biscuits are his favorite food sold at the coffee shop.
     Be prepared when visiting A Latte Friends, as anyone who does is “just going to fall in love with it, because it’s welcoming and it’s a happy place,” Tanya Estep – the owner of A Latte Friends – promises, as “when it comes to our employees, just the smile on their faces and the thank you in their voices will undoubtedly let you know that today will be a great day.”

When it comes to our employees, just the smile on their faces and the thank you in their voices will undoubtedly let you know that today will be a great day.

Tanya Estep, owner, A Latte Friends

     Tanya Estep states that her mission with the coffee shop is to “employ people with special needs, developmental disabilities, and give them an opportunity to work.”
     After graduating from high school, many Superstars are left aimless, considering “a lot of them don’t have opportunities to go to other places or have jobs,” Estep asserts, which can lead to social isolation and increases the likelihood of being depressed. The coffee shop is not only a first job for many of the young adults working there, but it has the additional benefit of acting as a spotlight to enlighten other employers on how they too can employ people with special needs.
     By providing Superstars with employment opportunities, A Latte Friends is able to support the continual development of young adults with special needs whilst simultaneously enabling them to earn their own money, socialize with friends and community members, and learn new skills in the area of coffee-making.

     Estep claims her idea for A Latte Friends developed during her time as a teacher.
     “The idea came when I was teaching high school. And you know, after they [Superstars] graduated, they didn’t have much. Choices were limited, so it was just a way to give back and let them work and have self-worth,” voices the retired special education teacher. And as for A Latte Friends being a coffee shop, she says, “I just figured that was something that a lot of people can relate to. Get a cup of coffee and share. It makes sense.”
     When choosing a location for her business, Estep considered several cities, but D’Iberville was the most welcoming, as she notes how “they were very accommodating and they’re just excited that we picked D’Iberville to open a coffee shop here – especially for this type of clientele.” Additionally, being in an area where most everybody knows someone in relation to A Latte Friends, it made perfect sense to put the shop in the D’Iberville area.

     A Latte Friends officially opened to the public on September 8, 2024, after four months of remodeling and a few weeks of staff/employee training. Previously a used car lot, Estep and family/friends did a lot of the work themselves of turning the business into a fully functioning coffee shop, with the main additions to the building being a service bar and drive-thru window.    
Furthermore, since A Latte Friends is a completely new business from the ground up, everyone – including Estep herself – had to be trained in the art of making coffee, as she expresses “I had not made coffee ever in my life. I’m not a coffee drinker…so I had to learn a lot about that.”

     Estep says that when she was in the planning stage for A Latte Friends, she took a lot of inspiration from the handful of businesses in Mississippi that supply jobs to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as The Lily Pad – a nonprofit aiming to start a cafe located in Brandon that will train people with special needs for the workforce. Some of the practices explicitly sought out when examining The Lily Pad’s business model were how it employed people and what items were on their menu, as they needed to be easy recipes for the Superstars to follow.
     The owner of A Latte Friends cites how training the Superstars on the recipes and procedures for running the coffee shop was originally very hands-on, but now whenever a customer comes in and orders something from the menu, the Superstars have the recipes memorized and can make each order to perfection. “They’ve come a long way in a short amount of time,” Estep adds.

     It is important to provide people with intellectual and developmental disabilities the opportunity to work and socialize whenever possible, which is why the distinct lack of businesses in coastal Mississippi that employ special needs individuals is concerning. A Latte Friends helps to rectify this issue by shaping its business model directly around the abilities of the Superstars it employs.
     “We just try to adapt it as we go and make the accommodations as they’re needed. And when we look at each individual person, we take that into account,” Estep said.
     Currently, the coffee shop is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and employs 18 people, the majority of whom are young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Two shifts are available – 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. – with two Superstars working per shift alongside a manager and the owner of A Latte Friends overseeing daily operations. Most of the morning shift consists of having everything taken out and all of the machines set up and ready for orders, especially the expresso machine, with the clean-up for the day done later by the afternoon shift, when they turn everything off and put it away until the next day.

     Eventually, Estep hopes to have some of the Superstars graduate to a managerial position, as “We have some that would be really good leads or in charge as shift managers. We’ve got a couple that would love to do that, and they’ve got that potential.”
     And since the coffee shop’s grand opening a couple of months ago, business has only been growing.
     While the customer base for A Latte Friends is still being established, the individuals that do come in quickly become regulars after they fall in love with the welcoming people and cozy atmosphere of the coffee shop.
     “We’re getting a lot of our regulars coming in, and every day we get new people that have never tried it before,” declares Estep. “They just hear about it through social media, and they come in, and they try it, and they share it.”
     That is exactly how Maria Midgett, Lynne Nix, and Julie Dorcik found themselves at A Latte Friends for the first time during one of their weekly Thursday meet-ups after learning about it on Facebook. The group of women are very enthusiastic and supportive of A Latte Friends’ promise to provide employment opportunities for people with special needs along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

     “The whole idea of having this special place,” states Midgett, who was a teacher for 32 years, “…[is] awesome. [There’s] nothing like this around here that I know of. We need to have more places like this. Everyone needs to feel like they’re responsible citizens, and this is just a wonderful opportunity.”
     Nix adds that she is excited for the Superstars employed. “I think it’ll be awesome. God will bless it.”
     Dorcik agrees, proclaiming “I couldn’t wait to come here when it opened. I couldn’t think of a better thing to touch people’s hearts besides this.”
     This is why when the group of women heard about the shop – despite Nix and Dorcik themselves not regularly going to coffee shops and/or drinking much coffee – they all came specifically to show their support for A Latte Friends mission and its Superstars.

     The owner of the coffee shop says she is excited to see how A Latte Friends will expand and change as it progresses as a business and wants to encourage people to come visit as well as asks them to include the business as a base for events such as fun-runs, car shows, motorcycle rallies, and other activities.
     Tanya Estep states that the main reason she thinks a lot of customers come inside the shop rather than use the drive-thru is because “they like to come in and get that connection and meet them [Superstars].”
     And why shouldn’t they? They’re Superstars.
     Located at10530 Auto Mall Pkwy, D’Iberville, MS, A Latte Friends is open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed on Sundays. There is a discount available on food and beverages at A Latte Friends for teachers.

     For all business inquiries, email alattefriends@yahoo.com.
     Call (228) 207-9451 or visit A Latte Friends official website, alattefriends.com, to learn more about how the small coffee shop is making a big difference for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in D’Iberville, Miss.
     Additionally, check out A Latte Friends Facebook page to keep up to date on all promotions, discounts, sales, etc., and to get to know each amazing Superstar working at A Latte Friends.

On the cover: A Latte Friends staff, (from left to right) Superstar Michael Halloran of Ocean Springs, Manager Angele Mills of Ocean Springs, Superstar LaTia Williams of Gulfport, Superstar Josh Cobb of Biloxi, Owner Tanya Estep of Woolmarket, enjoy their time together serving customers across the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Maya Wood

Southern Miss Gulf Scholar! Maya Wood is a native Mississippi resident currently working on obtaining her bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Southern Mississippi ‘s Gulf Coast campus. She plans to continue on to a master’s degree with an emphasis in literature or creative writing and is currently a member of the inaugural class of the nationally recognized Gulf Scholars Program that focuses on supporting states and communities along the coast. Her stories highlight local citizens, businesses and organizations and their contributions to providing “the good life” for Mississippi residents and visitors. Maya’s long-term goal is to do what she loves full time: work as a writer and eventually become an author, as she finds great joy in reading and wants to spread that feeling to others.