Net-Zero Hero: Amalia Litsa

I’m helping to make Austin Net-Zero by by operating a vegan coffee shop and creating a community hub for local cyclists, artists, and beyond.

We’re buzzing to introduce our newest Net-Zero Hero (and it’s not just from all the caffeine): Amalia Litsa. Litsa is an avid biker, longtime Austin resident, and the owner and founder of Dear Diary Coffee. In 2026, Food & Wine Magazine named Austin the number one coffee city in the U.S. in its Global Tastemaker Awards. Dear Diary is one coffee shop trying to do things a bit differently — and very uniquely Austin. 

At Dear Diary Coffee, they focus on minimizing waste, serving an exclusively plant-based menu, and supporting local artists and makers. Through Litsa’s vision, the coffee shop has become a welcoming space and community hub that demonstrates innovative approaches to green practices — all of which helped them earn the recognition of being named a gold-level Austin Green Business Leader.

We met with Litsa at Dear Diary Coffee to chat about what inspired the shop, how she continues to push for more sustainable actions, and what it means to her to be ‘hyper-local.’ Read on!

What inspired you to take action?

When I moved to Austin in 2002, I made so many new friends at artist meetups at local coffee shops. This experience planted an idea in my head, and I dreamed of opening a coffee shop of my own catered to creative people. 

But I had long been a vegetarian and made the jump to veganism over a decade ago. When I was younger, I learned that over a quarter of Earth's land is used to graze livestock or grow feed crops like soy and corn. Expanding this agricultural land is a primary driver of deforestation, particularly in tropical regions like the Amazon. 

The typical independent coffee shop uses between 40 and 60 gallons of milk every week. I know what happens to calves and their mothers, and no amount of money would make me feel okay with reselling cow milk. I couldn’t imagine operating a business built upon animal suffering.

Instead, I wanted to create a space that embodied my values and uniquely spoke to my community. Dear Diary Coffee was born from this.

How did you do it?

After talking to other business owners, I was confident I didn’t want to lease a space. I knew people paying $20,000 per month or more, and I just did not want to take that kind of risk. For years, I looked for an affordable commercial space to bring my dream to life without luck. You can’t take out a 30-year mortgage to buy a commercial space. You have to get a 5- or 10-year business loan. The bar is so high!

Dear Diary Coffee would not have been possible without the Chestnut Neighborhood Revitalization Project. Through this project, I was able to purchase a 947-square-foot commercial condo unit at 1212 Chicon Street. Even then, I had to sell my house in South Austin and take out a small business loan to cover the rest. A friend partnered with me the first year as well. It was the only way we could afford to practice our ideals. Now, we’re able to absorb the cost of our environmentally friendly choices because we aren’t losing revenue from rent. 

We’ve tried to imbue these ideals into every decision at Dear Diary. We make all of our own syrups and spice blends in-house using natural Mexican cane sugar, which helps us avoid wasting 5-15 bottles of commercially made syrup every week. We encourage customers to bring their own reusable cups and offer a personal cup discount. We even sell mason jars and growlers to promote reusable options. We set aside coffee grounds and tea leaves for neighborhood gardeners to pick up. Any gardener can partner with the shop and take home organic materials for their compost heaps. Even our merch is sustainable! My baristas had the idea to purchase second-hand T-shirts from charitable thrift stores and stamp Dear Diary’s logos on them. They created the linocuts themselves. I loved this idea and am proud to sell them in the shop.

We’re a fully vegan establishment, offering an amazing, complete menu of coffee shop beverages and snacks at non-vegan prices. This year, we moved to a fully transparent and simple pricing model: what you see is what you pay. Even though plant-based milk costs four times the price of cow’s milk, we don’t generally upcharge for milks or syrups. Employees are paid living wages, even without tips.     

Ultimately, Dear Diary exists because of our staff and our neighborhood. When someone from the community shops here, they are paying the wages of baristas who live here. I think this little closed-loop financial ecosystem is how it should be.

What’s been most rewarding about getting involved in this way?

Supporting my community through the shop has been extremely rewarding. I’m really motivated by nurturing the team of baristas who make Dear Diary what it is. I worked in the tech industry during the 2010s boom and am a firm believer in the philosophy of servant leadership.

At Dear Diary, we operate quite uniquely. Each quarter that we hit a profit goal of one percent growth, all employees receive a one percent raise. We also distribute a little over 4% of our profits to the baristas annually. I’m trying to create a model where staff feel like real partners in the company, while shielding them from the financial risk of actual ownership. I’m really open to their feedback and want them to have a say in the direction of the business. We have a group chat and quarterly meetings where employees can share ideas and discuss ways to implement them.

Beyond the employees, I’m proud to have fostered a space that continues to serve as a creative hub for our community. Dear Diary was inspired by the Austin arts scene of the early 2000s when I moved here. If you visit the shop today, you’ll find arts and crafts items displayed for resale from 25 local artists. We only rotate artists once per year so that everyone has ample time to figure out what sells. Our walls are adorned with plants, stuffies, and sculptures the staff have brought in over the years. The shop feels like a living space that evolves organically with every new employee and regular customer. It’s become a meetup spot and hangout for open mics, drawing groups, and the like. But honestly, I cannot take credit for the vibes. It’s all the people who exist in this space that make it what it is.

What’s been the toughest part?

The toughest part is the cost of doing business. 

There is a real commercial crisis in Austin, and I hope the city will consider ways to relax commercial zoning regulations and build more affordable commercial units for locally owned restaurants and retail businesses. I would love to see the city implement a commercial version of The Austin Community Land Trust, which sells affordable housing on city-owned land, or to start building first-floor commercial units in its residential housing. There needs to be competition in the commercial real estate market to allow small, local business owners to stand a chance.

You’ve talked about Dear Diary being hyperlocal. Can you talk about what that means and why it feels important? How does it show up in your menu—like can you tell us about your August drink specials featuring grape?

You know how if you grow a watermelon in a box, you get a square watermelon? I’m an Austin-shaped watermelon. Dear Diary represents the community we exist in and, I hope, infuses the neighborhood with its unique flavor. Businesses like ours tell passersby the most about what sort of neighborhood they are visiting.

Plus, these restaurants and retailers keep money circulating within Austin. The $7.75 you pay for a latte at Dear Diary Coffee directly supports people who live and work in your neighborhood.

Beyond that, Dear Diary aims to source locally as much as possible. I’ve long been interested in foraging and learning more about local flora. I’m able to sell to customers directly through my cottage food business: Amalia Foods, a real passion project of mine.

This year, I noticed the neighborhood was practically dripping with wild Mustang grapes. I found them growing on almost every fence line and telephone pole in full sun and spent a month scouting out plants with accessible berries. I gathered enough grapes on public lands to make seven gallons of syrup. I’m so excited for people to taste the neighborhood!

The Mustang grapes that grow in East Austin are tart and full of tannins. While these qualities make them rather unpleasant to eat raw, they make a syrup that is fantastic from a culinary standpoint: they impart a punchy grape flavor, smooth the mouthfeel, and prevent the sugar from crystallizing. It has that balance of sweet and tart, like a Jolly Rancher candy!

If you purchased the syrup from Amalia Foods, I would recommend using it in cocktails or an Italian soda. It’s also delicious drizzled on baked goods. Surprisingly, I think it pairs great with espresso. Our team has been making syrup with grocery store grapes to use behind the bar. In August, we celebrated the grape harvest with specials like the Grackle Wing Refresher that features wild grape syrup, black tea, and sparkling water, and the Backstage Glitter Latte, with espresso, wild grape cold foam, and mica glitter.

We saw that you are an avid biker and have hosted events for the biking community at Dear Diary Coffee. What’s your experience been biking in Austin, and what has it meant to you?

My love of bikes started when I was a latchkey kid in the 80s. In college, I participated in large social rides like Critical Mass and the Annual Moonlight Cruise, predecessors to the Thursday Night Social Ride that happens in Austin today. I later discovered mountain biking, group road rides, gravel rides, bike camping, and other competitive and endurance forms of riding a bike. It’s been a long love affair!

In 2024, I was elected President of Team Snacks Cycling, a local women’s cycling club for WTF (women, trans, and femme) riders — basically anyone who places themselves on the women’s side of the gender spectrum. Our weekly ride at Team Snacks Cycling, which is called “Slow Your Roll,” started using Dear Diary Coffee as its start and stop location when Cycleast closed in 2023. My two loves came together! 

I’m proud of how Dear Diary Coffee has evolved into an environment where trans and queer people feel safe. The Slow Your Roll ride has definitely contributed to this. Bringing this ride to its new location attracted more trans women, and the environment and community have had a reciprocal effect.

Through my years of biking in Austin, I’ve befriended people across so many different cycling communities. The way I see it, if I’ve memorized your name, you’re a friend. Sure, not a close one. But between cycling and Dear Diary, my world is full of friends. And yours can be too.

What advice do you have for others?

It’s important to give people your best self. I encourage people to really consider their mental health: good diet, exercise, enjoying nature, taking medications — whatever is needed to bring your best version of yourself to the world. When I worked an office job, I stopped exercising and was spending 10 to 12 hours in front of a screen every day. The joyful person that they had hired was dying. I realized I needed to nurture the person they thought they were bringing into their team, even if that meant I’d be working less.

I also would encourage people to choose vegan as much as they can. I believe that practicing a vegan lifestyle is the highest-impact thing the average person can do to protect the planet. Research shows a plant-based diet can cut dietary greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water pollution by up to 75% compared to meat-heavy diets. I hope people will do what they can and, with Dear Diary’s offerings, I hope we’re making it very easy for the mostly non-vegan clientele to choose vegan without having to think about it.

I also know that there can be defensive reactions to being vegan. The way I see it, vegans are just people who are genuinely horrified by animal cruelty. They can’t bring themselves to eat or buy animal products because it gives them nightmares. It’s not about you; it’s about them. I wish more people could see it as a sweet thing to do to have a positive impact on our world, like donating to non-profits or volunteering at shelters. There are so many ways to make an impact. For me, good is good.

Dive deeper

Dear Diary Coffee is open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday through Sunday. If you know a business that exemplifies green practices, encourage them to apply to the Austin Green Business Leaders program. 

One goal of the Austin/Travis County Food Plan centers around supporting more pro-climate, pro-health diets. Explore the progress being made towards this goal or visit the Austin Climate Equity Plan to discover more ways to take action toward our community’s net-zero future!

Know a sustainability superstar?

Nominate them as a Net-Zero Hero by emailing Climate@AustinTexas.gov.