× Expand Courtesy of Lola Jean's Giveback Coffee

Chefs at pizzerias don’t just sit around and wait for the dough to rise. And apparently you don’t have to just wait for a pizza oven to arrive to open an eatery and begin turning a profit.

Or, in the case of Lola Jean’s Giveback Coffee, to donate 100 percent of profits to charity, according to owner Russell Ping. He plans to open Lola Jean’s Pizza a year from now in the same space.

In the meantime, Ping will use the Southampton building (5400 Nottingham), which formerly housed Grapeseed, to sell Kaldi’s Coffee and pastries from his other restaurant, Russell's Cafe & Bakery.

Each month, Lola Jean’s will donate profits to a different local charity. (It will not be organized as a nonprofit.)

Ping says he has not finalized the list, but recipients could include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, Pedal the Cause, and Urban Harvest STL, which operates Food Roof Farm. The organizations can also use the space for events and to promote their particular cause.

× Expand Courtesy of Lola Jean's Giveback Coffee

“Running Russell’s for 12 years, we have always thought about what could be a charitable thing for us to do because we are constantly asked to do things,” says Ping who owns three Russell’s locations. “This is just kind of a short-term project to try to do some good in the community.”

As Ping started planning for the pizzeria, which is named for his daughter (pictured at right) and will sell Neapolitan-style pies, he realized that it would take some time to design the space, renovate the kitchen, and order and install a wood-fired oven.

“We just wanted to make sure that it is right, exactly as we wanted it to be,” he says. In terms of profits, the pizzeria will function as any other restaurant.

“It’s still just as difficult for us to make profit and to make money, but we also want to do something to help people," Ping says. "The last thing I want is for people to think that we are just in to so much money and that we are just trying to give stuff away. That’s really not the case."

The coffee shop opened July 5. In addition to the usual fare, it also offers flavored coffees with simple syrups made in house. They include vanilla bean/mint/lemon and orange/rosemary/black pepper.

Once the pizzeria opens, the coffee shop will move to a garage space behind the building as a “walk-up concept,” Ping says. He is unsure whether it will continue to function as a source of proceeds for charity.