NBA star Jimmy Butler has brewed his love for coffee into a storefront in Miami, FL’s Design District.
After teasing the concept for some time, the Miami Heat star officially opened his first BigFace Coffee shop on Dec. 5, 2024, according to Axios. The café boasts a chic interior design, a selection of merchandise including hats and jerseys, and an outdoor courtyard featuring ample seating.
“This is a dream of mine,” Butler said at the grand opening, CBS News reported. “I get to come in here, chill out, meet people, vibe out, and become friends. Coffee is life. It’s how I start my mornings, watching my daughter play while I enjoy a cappuccino. For me, that’s the quintessential coffee experience.”
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Besides Butler, other basketball figures at the grand opening included Carmelo Anthony, Heat center Kevin Love, and former NBA guard Brandon Jennings, according to Axios. DJ Khaled and French footballer Paul Pogba also attended.
Butler started BigFace as an online coffee store in 2021, according to AFROTECH™, and expanded to occasional mobile pop-up shops before landing in Miami’s leading hub for dining, fashion, art, and architecture.
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the six-time NBA All-Star and five-time All-NBA member was disappointed by the lack of coffee options available during the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) return to the court in Orlando, FL, in 2020. Looking to satisfy his cravings while living in the Bubble, he put his French press to use and started selling cups of coffee to fellow players for $20.
“The reasoning behind [the name BigFace Coffee] was when we first got into the Bubble during the pandemic, I remember opening up our per diem and it was like $2,080 in there. Basically 20 $100 bills and four $20 bills,” Butler said, per AFROTECH™.
Explaining how he did the math, he poined out that if he charged $20 per cup, players would eventually run out of $20 bills and come back with $100 bills — or “big faces.”
“Whenever they hand me the hundred, I’m going to be like, ‘Whoops, sorry. I don’t have change. Thank you for paying a hundred dollars for a cup of coffee,'” Butler said. “Never really worked that way but the idea was genius.”
Following the season, the NBA star — who has earned over $144 million in his career and has a reported $80 million net worth — filed a trademark for “Big Face.”
“When Jimmy Butler the basketball player is done, I guarantee that when you Google search Big Face Coffee shop, and you find one, especially if it’s in Miami or San Diego, I’ll probably end up in there working, perfecting my latte art,” Butler said, according to AFROTECH™. “That’s where I’ll be to show people that this isn’t a game for me. I really, really, really enjoy drinking coffee.”
Butler has since turned his dreams into reality. The global coffee industry generated over $460 billion in revenue in 2022, with the U.S. accounting for about $90 billion, according to Prime Engineering.
Reflecting on his journey from NBA star to business owner, he told Axios his brick-and-mortar store represents “a new frontier in coffee.”
“This has been like the steps of my life,” Butler said. “You start with a dream, you start with an idea, and then it grows into something like this. I remember dreaming of being an NBA player, and now here I am with my own coffee shop.”
