BestSelf Behavioral Health selects Unapologetic Coffee for new location

Local roasters and café-owning sisters will serve their coffee and social philosophy at BestSelf’s headquarters

BestSelf Behavioral Health announced it has partnered with locally owned Unapologetic Coffee to serve its products in a space on the first floor of its new headquarters and future home of the Scott Bieler Child Advocacy Center (CAC) at BestSelf. All are slated to open this summer.

The Scott Bieler Center at BestSelf, located at 899 Main St., on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, marks a significant step forward in BestSelf’s mission to provide essential mental health services and support for children and families affected by abuse in Erie County. The new Unapologetic Coffee café will provide great coffee in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere to those visiting the building, the neighborhood, and beyond.

“We are thrilled to partner with Unapologetic Coffee as the café in our new headquarters,” BestSelf Behavioral Health President and CEO Elizabeth Woike-Ganga said. “Their commitment to quality and community aligns perfectly with our mission and values at BestSelf. Together, we look forward to providing a space that serves great coffee and fosters a sense of belonging and support for all who walk through our doors.”

To find the right partner for this unique opportunity, BestSelf began the search near the end of 2023 with a request for proposal (RFP) posted online and sent to many coffee makers around Buffalo. BestSelf was looking for a locally owned company with an excellent reputation and already established in the community. It also wanted to find a company with high-quality products and services that could bring a local feel and entrepreneurial spirit to the new location.

The press release noted, “Multiple coffee-making companies were in contention for this new space during the process. After reviewing many potential partners for a few months, the search brought twins Alicia and Alisa Officer to the top of the list. The excellent quality of Unapologetic Coffee is well-known in the community, and BestSelf wanted to help make that coffee available in this neighborhood. In addition, they were willing to work with clients served in the building and be a resource for BestSelf’s vocational rehabilitation services.”

Alisa Officer said, "When we saw that BestSelf had that opening, we did a lot of due diligence through research first and realized that this company was for people to get excellent care and health care. Then to be invited to be a part of that was very nice for us, too. Not everyone does what we do. Not everyone does what BestSelf does. So, it was great to merge these two.”

Advocacy and access are important to the Officer twins, and this new site is located centrally on a transit line. As they continue to expand, Unapologetic Coffee will soon be doing more of its commercial sales and roasting at the site of the old Record Theatre on Main Street in Buffalo. 

In addition to serving their coffee at this site, the siblings will have a full espresso bar and a “grab-and-go” menu. They will also serve pastries and some sandwich options, many of which are products sourced through other local businesses.

Unapologetic Coffee aims to directly provide small-batch, roasted quality coffee to consumers and small businesses. Its mission is to highlight and give representation to the specialty coffee industry. BestSelf’s mission is to provide innovative, evidence-based, accessible, and family-focused behavioral health services to promote health, hope and enhanced quality of life.

The press release said, “The hope is that the presence of Unapologetic Coffee and BestSelf at this new location might compel other businesses to come to this community and, perhaps, help fill in some of the empty storefronts in the neighborhood.”

BestSelf Behavioral Health is the largest community-based behavioral health organization serving children and adults with mental health and substance use disorders in WNY. It provides access to a full continuum of person-centered, trauma-informed behavioral health treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery services. BestSelf has an annual budget of $94 million and serves more than 41,000 children and adults in 70-plus locations in Western New York.

The newly expanded, state-of-the-art Child Advocacy Center will serve as a central hub, co-locating all essential community partners and providing the much-needed space to effectively support the children and families of Erie County who have endured sexual abuse, violence and trauma.

For more information, photos and videos of the CAC, visit https://cacbuffalo.org/campaign/.