6 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F is lining up for coffee from a Warriors star. Is it worth it?
It may have been noon on a Monday, but the vibe inside San Francisco's Bigface Coffee popup was like a VIP-only party. Customers covered in expensive streetwear mingled with coffee cups in hand, phones in the other, as a DJ blasted hip hop party anthems. Outside, there was a growing line down 22nd Street.
Then, all eyes turned toward the door as Jimmy Butler III — the Golden State Warriors' star and Bigface's owner — entered the building.
Bigface has settled in for a two-week popup at 1100 Valencia St., where digital payment company Square runs an events and customer support hub. The otherwise minimal space, best known as the longtime home of Lucca Ravioli, is now blasted with Ferrari red accents bearing Bigface's branding in all caps. The engagement, through July 27, allows Warriors fans and specialty coffee nerds to sample Bigface's beans in filter and espresso drinks for the first time.
The popup was quite the scene. But as an on-the-record coffee obsessive, I had to know: Is Jimmy Butler's coffee worth the hype?
The six-time all-star began his coffee business during the 2020 NBA Bubble tournament, an abridged season carried out behind closed doors at a Florida complex at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A coffee nerd, Butler began selling brews out of his hotel room to his teammates who wanted something better than Folgers from a coffee maker.
'Coffee is just another vessel to sit down with people and talk about what we have in common,' Butler told me in an interview at the popup Monday. The venture has since grown to include a Miami flagship location and a roasting contract with Onyx Coffee Lab, a massive specialty coffee roaster headquartered in Arkansas. Butler's company sources the raw coffees and sells the roasted product.
Online, some have raised an eyebrow at the company's high prices, with 250-gram coffee bags that run from $30 to $40. Skeptics of celebrity-backed foods and luxury products (of which I am both) naturally ask what coffee is worth that. (High-end coffees from some of the Bay Area's better roasters often fall between $18 to $40 for a bag.)
So, as a coffee fanatic, who has sunk good money into luxe coffees from top tier roasters — from Tokyo and Copenhagen's big hitters to the Bay Area's boundary pushing experts — I also had to find out for myself. When I saw Butler had collaborated with football (soccer) powerhouse club Paris Saint-Germain (he's a fan), I purchased two bags.
And I have some news: Bigface has really good coffees. Single origin offerings include a Colombian coffee from the Huila province ($40 for a bag) with pronounced, sweet notes of black tea and brown sugar when brewed as a pourover.
The Rwandan coffee (also $40 for a bag) appears to be Bigface's ace offering. My pourover showed good sweetness, between prunes and dates, with acidity akin to stone fruits. As my pour over cooled down, I could appreciate some of the dry fig notes mentioned on the box.
'When I tasted it I thought it was really amazing,' Butler told me of the Rwandan offering.
Because we all eat, or drink, with our eyes first, Bigface packaging looks and feels premium. The coffee comes inside a sturdy cardboard shell with raised lettering and logos that looks like a high-end sneaker box. Getting to the beans is like unboxing a new iPhone, only the box has been perfumed with resting coffee. Pull up the top to reveal an opaque white pouch containing eight ounces of whole coffee beans.
For anyone who just wants to try a coffee and snap a photo, the menu at the popup is straightforward, with espresso drinks ($4-$9), cold brew ($8), pourovers ($10) and matcha ($8). 'Formulas,' Bigface brand speak for special drinks ($10), include a cherry cream soda and a refreshing latte spiked with coconut water and topped with coconut cold foam. The menu at the cafe also includes a $100 flight of three coffees.
Butler, who signed a two-year, $112 million with the Warriors, appears to have expensive tastes. 'It's not a joke,' he said, 'I have for sure spent the most at Bigface stores than anyone by a long shot because when I order a coffee I have to pay $100.' His second-round pick: a foamy oat milk cappuccino.
Will the Warriors' star be making coffees at his popup? Rodney Mustelier, who Butler identified as his own personal barista, leads the coffee bar, but there may be an opening for Butler to show off one of his talents off the court.
'I made a promise that someone will get my first coffee, so I think I have to do it,' Butler said. 'Just don't look at my latte art since I haven't been practicing.'
