Coffee & Culture
MOTW Coffee & Pastries Opens New Fishers Location
Writer / Kylee White
Photographer / Sam Zachrich
Social media is at the hands of everyone these days. Some people are able to use it to create a life for themselves. For Sajjad Shah, owner and creator of the Instagram page Muslims of the World (MOTW), this was the case.
Our mission is to bring people together, Shah says. Even helping people and doing the charity work that we do is under our goal of bringing people together because it all falls under that concept.
Shah created an Instagram profile to showcase Muslim voices while he was in high school. Years later, Shah was able to grow his business to include MOTW Coffee and Pastries.
I was one of the only few Muslims at HSE and I fit in, but I never really felt that I completely fit in, Shah says. I started an Instagram story highlighting Muslim stories and people who had Muslim faith and their everyday stories.
Suddenly, Shahs page started going viral, as more and more people began listening to the stories he shared.
These stories resonated with people who were not Muslim and people with other faiths, Shah says. All of a sudden, the page just went viral.
Muslims Of The World (MOTW)s Instagram now has close to 700,000 followers, and continues to grow. The organization has been able to do a lot of work in being able to bring people together, despite their faith or differences.
Of course, the next big thing we decided was, well what is another thing that brings people together? And we thought coffee, Shah adds.
Shah opened MOTW Coffee & Pastries in Indianapolis close to 11 months ago and just recently opened the newest location in Fishers.
Ive been in Fishers for the past 20 years and thought that we definitely needed a specialty coffee shop here, he says.
MOTW Coffee & Pastries had a soft opening in mid-March, and the business has already been blooming. Even though the location hasnt been open for too long, Shah says the response that the shop has gotten so far is just what they were hoping for.
The response has been absolutely amazing, Shah adds. When we have customers come in the one thing that people are always saying is that we need more coffee shops and more safe places. I think we are a perfect fit for Fishers, and the city is reacting the way we hoped they would, which is coming in here and supporting us.
Shah has plans to continue growing in the future as well but not until their Fishers location of MOTW has a solid foundation.
We definitely want to have more locations, he says. We havent done any marketing here in Fishers yet, and the reason why is because we dont want to overwhelm our team and staff. Were just trying to take it slowly. Once we feel like were in a good spot then well open up another location. Thats how we did it with our first location. It took us about seven months to feel like we were comfortable before we started working on this shop.
Shah wants the coffee shop to be focused on bringing people together in the community, as well as being a helping hand to those in need. With their Indianapolis location, MOTW Coffee and Pastries worked to build care packages for the homeless this past winter and hope to do more acts like that for Fishers.
The community in Indianapolis and the community in Fishers is very different, Shah says. You dont see things in Fishers that you might in Indianapolis. But there are people in need everywhere you go, you just have to find them and look a bit harder when you come to cities like Fishers. What were trying to do in Fishers is determine what a potential need is and try to mend that.
Shah is proud of the progress that the business had made so far. He is excited to see what MOTW can do for the city of Fishers and is happy to see so many different people come to the new shop.
As I look around the room I see people that are white, black, brown, people with different faiths, and I know that Fishers wasnt always like that, he says. Thats something that will end up leading to a lot of different great things as well.
You can visit MOTW Coffee and Pastries at 8235 E 116th St Suite 215 in Fishers or check out their Instagram page @MOTW.Coffee. You can also visit them online at motwcoffee.com.
