NBA star Jimmy Butler used to run the most exclusive coffee shop in the world. Now it's for everyone.
NBA star Jimmy Butler isn't only passionate about basketball. His love of coffee (and good conversation) is why he finally opened his first brick-and-mortar location of Bigface in Miami this year.
Jimmy Butler’s first customer still owes him money.
In the summer of 2020, while holed up in an Orlando hotel during the NBA’s bubble season amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Butler first began the side hustle that’s since become one of his defining characteristics: selling coffee.
Using an espresso machine in his hotel room, Butler opened what could be considered the first location of Bigface, a coffee brand that Butler has since turned into a legitimate business. In the bubble, however, Butler was looking for a way to take his mind off of basketball — and take advantage of his rich, captive clientele, charging $20 per drink. (Hence the name Bigface.)
Butler’s first customer was his then-Miami Heat teammate Goran Dragic, whom Butler affectionately refers to as his brate, or brother in Slovenian. Except, according to Butler, Dragic never paid the hefty fee for all his drinks.
“My first sale was, ‘I don’t have cash on me right now but I’ll get it to you,’” Butler recalls. “He actually made the same excuse every time. So Goran actually owes me quite a lot of money for all the coffee he hustled me out of.”
Rating: 5