When you drive by Karol Coffee Co. in St. Paul’s Como neighborhood, you might want to stop and check it out, even if you have already had your cup for the day. Its freshly painted facade and welcoming interior signal that someone has breathed new life into this old building.
That “someone” is a married couple with deep Catholic Studies roots. Megan (Hastings) ’13 and Nate Whipple ’25 CSMA were married in 2020 when Megan was studying at the Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts in Minneapolis and Nate was working as a Director of Outreach and Apostolic Life for Father Spencer Howe ’09 at Holy Cross in Northeast Minneapolis. Neither could have envisioned opening a coffee shop, but God had been preparing them for an integration of faith, work, and life along the way.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit was at work when Howe asked Nate during his job interview, “What is the best way to reach young people in Northeast?” Nate replied, “At a bar or a coffee shop.”
With that, a dream was born.
Like many American dreams, it all started in a garage with Megan using more than half the space for a large art commission and Nate, tucked in a corner, learning the art of roasting coffee with a roaster purchased on Facebook Marketplace.
The rest of their story – which moves from the garage to the farmer’s market to a food truck to the present-day coffee shop – sounds like many other American dreams. But there is something different about this one. Something intentional is happening in this space where coffee is poured. There is a culture that you can see in the artwork, hear in the buzz of conversations, and feel when you step into the shop. None of this is by accident.
Catholic Studies played a big role in how the Whipples see the integration of faith, work and life. “Going to Rome in 2012 was really impactful,” Megan said. “This is where I read about the role of the religious and the laity and how they are understood in the Church. I was struck by this universal call to holiness no matter who we are or what we pursue.”
In the CSMA program, Nate was heavily influenced by Romano Guardini and centered his master’s thesis on the writings of this humble and brilliant Italian-born priest. “In a very real way, we see this shop as our vocation, as the way in which we are working out our salvation and bringing the good to bear on our neighborhood,” he said.
The Whipples work very hard to create a culture that promotes human flourishing, a lofty idea for a coffee shop, to be sure. But it’s so embedded in Megan and Nate that it simply happens in the particulars of their daily life – roasting, training, serving, painting, welcoming, and balancing the books. “This shop is our reality,” Nate said. “It’s the conjunction of people, circumstances, and events in which we have an interest, which affects us personally, and which makes a demand on us.”
Another sign of their intentionality is evident when you check their store hours. “Closed on Sundays” might seem like a bad business decision to some, and it was not an easy one for Megan and Nate. They prayed about it and consulted with Dr. Naughton and his wife, Teresa, who pointed them back to their patron, St. John Paul II, who had a lot to say about the Lord’s Day.
“In the coffee shop business, Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days. We had to weigh the sacrifice, and we even considered being closed on Mondays instead,” they said. “But we ultimately decided that we could rest on Mondays, but we couldn’t get the Sabbath on Mondays.”
And so, their mission to integrate their faith, life, and work, and their desire to create a culture in which others can do the same, is poured out, one cup at a time.
Megan ’13 and Nate Whipple ’25Catholic Studies gave us an encyclopedia for life that we can consult,” they said. “It is a framework that is integrated into our whole humanity. It has been invaluable in our life and work.”
CSMA
This story is featured in the fall 2025 issue of Lumen.
