Mike and Nicole Nicholas are the husband-and-wife duo behind Aunts et Uncles, a vibrant plant-based café and lifestyle shop in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Drawing from their Caribbean roots, Mike hailing from St. Lucia and Nicole with Trinidadian and Vincentian heritage, they've created a space that blends culture, community, and cuisine. Their menu reimagines traditional dishes with a vegan twist, offering items like the Haitian-style patty made without eggs or dairy. Beyond food, Aunts et Uncles serves as a cultural hub, featuring curated books, stylish apparel, and a welcoming atmosphere that reflects their commitment to uplifting the neighborhood .
What did you all imagine career wise for your life and yourselves? What were your dreams?
MN: I'm a designer by trade, so I studied visual effects and motion graphics. I always wanted to do on-air or like you know movie titles and things of that nature, just graphics for television and movies, music videos and stuff. But I also liked the idea of entrepreneurship and creating a brand that was an extension of my interest so it kind of happened and worked itself out and evolved into what we have right now.
NN: Oh my God, those were so many things before I landed here. But one that's most vivid for me is I always wanted to be in service, like I knew that was always a thing for me. Initially, I've always loved children, I've always wanted to be a nurse or a doctor and my mother was like, “You are so compassionate, you would not be able to work in the hospital and see all of these things happening to these people.” So I decided to just start my life in service and retail. I left Canada when I was 19 turning 20, I just felt like there was nothing really there for me, nothing fulfilling. I made my way to New York City not even thinking that I was going to stay, but here I am 25 years later and I just landed in hospitality. Hospitality, event planning, those sorts of things until I met Michael and we kind of put both of our interests together.
The power of community, food and black joy amongst Aunts et Uncles. (All rights reserved to owner)
I'm a believer that true relationships are built on the foundation of alignment and purpose. Each of you have your essential backgrounds, Mike your design and Nicole your hospitality. How have you each used your talents to enhance the mission of Aunts et Uncles? What have you both discovered about yourself in the process of building this entity?
MN: I could definitely say that I was able to apply my design principles, aesthetic and value to the brand. It's come across in the merchandise, it has come across in the menu design partially in the spatial design, the dishes, social media. On social media almost every touch point, I was able to bring that forward. And I think it's been the years of working and building Aunts et Uncles and understanding those talents, gifts and value that I bring to the table. I was able to learn how to delegate better and allow myself to kind of take a couple steps back, put the idea forward and take a couple steps back and let the team bring it to life instead of having to physically do everything from start to end.
NN: I think for me, it kind of bubbles over a little bit. You have these unique talents from birth, I think from your existence. For me it was having people over, always planning all the family events, making sure we were gathered in spaces. You know the dialogue and the things that we write and the music we play like all of those things are just part of my upbringing and just my existence. So it's easy to kind of roll it over into Aunts et Uncles within that space, we call it our living room. So to be hospitable and to always make sure people are good, making sure that they're fed and you know making sure that they're heard, those are all things that I get to do every day.
“We learned how to do things together and find these inner talents within ourselves, because the thing about us is we have this crazy alignment and it just gets things done you know. We don't believe in, “Oh this is my job, that's your job,” just like get it done. So whatever it takes to get to the finish line.”
- Mike Nicholas
Mike, many don’t know you actually gifted Nicole the space for her birthday in 2019. Without prior knowledge nor experience but passion for a vision that took over a year to imagine and build. What were some surprises along the way that could have changed the direction of the project? What kept you all going?
MN: COVID was one of the biggest ones and because we didn't expect it to take a year to open, we thought like four to six months would have been up and running. But between COVID and then we lost Nicole's mom along the way, that kind of threw things. It’s like we're building this together and it's we gotta stop because we got to be there for her, be there for the family. We learned how to do things together and find these inner talents within ourselves, because the thing about us is we have this crazy alignment and it just gets things done you know. We don't believe in, “Oh this is my job, that's your job,” just like get it done. So whatever it takes to get to the finish line.
NN: When he did gift me the space he said, “Here babe, here's the keys. Let's finally do something for ourselves.” You know you're always pouring into other people's businesses with the same time we can pour into our own. We didn't realize how big it was nor how big the undertaking would be. We just thought we were going to open this cool cafe in our neighborhood where our neighbors could come by and eat great food. The food wasn't even supposed to be this major component. We weren't thinking restaurant, we weren't thinking what an energy bill would cost monthly, the costs to have staff that you have to pay every week. Because we grew so fast and it began with just the two of us.
Michael Nicholas (left), who opened the café with his wife, Nicole (right), grew up around the corner, not far from where the couple lives now (All rights reserved to owner)
Nicole you stated in a 2022 interview, “An idea is an idea but the passion behind it is what you really have to understand.” What have you grown to understand about the power of an idea that is fueled by one’s imagination and intention?
NN: You could bring it back to the restaurant. Opening your doors, it is this big thing everybody might know about Aunts et Uncles, but those same 50,000 followers, those 50,000 followers aren't patronizing Aunts et Uncles every day and making sure that we flow.
MN: There's a lot of people that are rooting for us, people who are cheering for us from a distance, the people who are watching from a distance. But it's the one’s that are coming in as often as possible that helps keep the doors open for opportunities. The process and the journey to bring people in even closer and is also inspiring a whole other generation.
NN: When it's quiet and you're like, “Okay you can't just sit here and think that people are going to come. You have to come up with whatever is going to be the next thing within the space that are going to get people going.” Our latest thing is we started “Good day”, so on Fridays we have a DJ playing in the morning time just so that we can get people in good spirits before their commute to work. Just that one idea that you decide to stand behind it and see what can come of it, now we have a breakfast in the morning between 8-10 a.m. and we're already making more sales. So it's just the little things like that, you have to kind of walk behind it. You could see it like this idea might be good, but unless you take that step, you'll never know what's going to be the reality of it.
“You could see it like this idea might be good, but unless you take that step, you'll never know what's going to be the reality of it.”
- Nicole Nicholas
Culture and collaboration are at the center of your mission and instead of leaving your neighborhood, you both decided to build within it. Whether alongside other local businesses, brands or even customers, how do you choose who to align yourself with and what do you want the next season of Aunts et Uncles to look like?
MN: It's synergy. We just operate at a frequency naturally, then we created this space and that space exude that same frequency. So people who are on that frequency, like yourself. We don't believe in anything that's forced. If the Universe is telling us it's not working, then it's not working, we're not going to overdo it. A lot of times we're trying to tap into so much of our intuition. Nicole’s in tune with her intuition a lot better than I am and she has a sense. If you're not feeling the vibe, you're not feeling the vibe and it goes the same way for me too. I don't want to keep going because it's not going to end good you know. We try to just be mindful and things like that, they've all been organic and they've come out to be the best things ever. Because once those collaborations happen, just the amplification of it in itself it's just, we weren't expecting that and it's just happen naturally.
NN: I think I've always been a good faith person my whole life, you know my mother used to always yell at me for that.”You're too nice, people don't give you what you give them,” but you know, it's just I don't know. It's just, I can't explain it, it's just a natural thing. If it doesn't align, if it doesn't feel good, I don't only think of my intentions, but I think of the intentions of others. And if it's not landing and it's not in sync, then I'm okay with saying no, like maybe another time when it aligns, things don't always align. It doesn't mean no, it just might mean this is not the right time. I'm usually feeling around for the right time.
What role does representation play in helping the next generation believe that their dreams and aspirations are truly possible?
MN: Representation is a vital factor because if you don't know what's possible, then you don't know what you can do. And if you don't have the right people as motivational figures or just indicators to say, “Oh this is possible, like these folks are doing this and I could do this too.” You have to have the space to know that you could take up that space. I feel like it helps so much knowing that I can occupy this space and even if you're not represented in the industry yet, knowing that you could fill up that space, we fill up other spaces the same way.
NN: Representation as two figures in the community, it just bugs us sometimes when we have people come and be like, “Oh my God, I've been really looking at you guys”, or when we're out or people are beeping the car horn like “Aunts et Uncles.” It's still really all surreal. There was a woman in the cafe on Friday. She came for the breakfast event last week and she brought her two children and she literally donated when we first did our first run before we opened Aunts et Uncles. And she brought the children there, I think they moved out of the neighborhood and she brought them back and the son is almost like six feet tall and they remembered me and hugged me. We pour into a lot of the kids that come into the community, we pour into the people. We sit and listen to their stories, we listen to their problems, we listen to their ideas and we also make sure that to be in East Flatbush and to say we're here, like we're making it in. We're also representing the community, so it's important to show how Flatbush shows up, how Little Caribbean shows up in the world. You know outside of just that small community, it's important that we represent them as well.
Want to hear more amazing stories like this? Check out our “More of Us” series! If you want to connect with Mike and Nicole and support the work they are doing, follow Nicole on social at @nicnich and Mike at @brooklynsky and their business at Aunts et Uncles, support their movement Aunts et Uncles.