At the new Whammy Coffee bar in central Birmingham, Alabama. All images courtesy of Whammy Coffee.
The Birmingham, Alabama, coffee scene gained a doozy this spring with the grand opening of Whammy Coffee‘s first brick-and-mortar cafe.
In the ground floor space of the Denham Building formerly occupied by Atlanta-based East Pole Coffee Co., Whammy Coffee has added its own flavors, brightening the formerly cool blue walls with fresh coats of cream and maroon paint, and adding new seating.
Existing walnut and brass surfaces add some built-in elegance to the shop, where a 12-stool horseshoe-shaped bar sits beneath an Art Deco-style installation of curved, floating shelves. Multiple rows of windows at the front of the shop let in ample natural light.
“The good thing about the East Pole space was that they had invested heavily in the infrastructure,” Whammy Coffee Co-Founder Mitch McEver told Daily Coffee News. “They had beautiful walnut everywhere. My wife Maddie and I already loved that space.”
In addition to working shifts on bar, crafting the Whammy’s syrups and handling branding and design, co-founder Maddie McEver also leads the shop’s onsite bakery, turning out sweet and savory scones and baked treats.
The fun-loving company, which packs a little toy dinosaur in every bag of beans, started casually, with Mitch McEver and a college friend seeking a creative pastime that could also yield some holiday gifts for friends and family. They consulted Mitch’s older sister, the owner of Noble & Main Coffee Co. in Cartersville, Georgia, eventually borrowing time on the company’s production machine.
After receiving positive feedback on a first round of coffee sales, the fledgling coffee company started placing a laser-cut felt version of its dino logo, complete with googly eyes, into coffee bags.
“It was just a fun bag of coffee. It was a little silly, but the coffee was still good,” said Mitch McEver. “We realized that those [attributes] are not always things that people put together. What they’re expecting from bags of roasted coffee is very detailed notes on origin, tasting notes and altitude, just highly specific things that, honestly, lots of consumers don’t know the consequence of, don’t know the effects of. So when they got greeted by a bag with googly eyes on it that still had good coffee, it was a unique experience.”
In the summer of 2022, McEver purchased a 3-kilo US Roaster Corp machine owned by Birmingham’s June Coffee, and started buying green coffee from Cafe Imports for weekly production roasting.
The following summer saw the first in-person Whammy Coffee pop-up, inside a gifts/clothing store in Birmingham called One Mercantile, while the next iteration of the bag featured a crossword puzzle on the label.
“We kind of took the lowbrow humor a little bit further,” said McEver. “Rather than tasting notes on that bag, I remember us putting things that this coffee reminds us of: 70s shag carpet, Sunday cartoons and something else. We just wanted people to laugh and to not take the coffee too seriously as they engaged with it.”
Supported by a La Marzocco Linea espresso machine and Fetco batch brewer paired with Mahlkönig grinders, the fun continues today with signature drinks such as the Double Whammy, a Coca-Cola with a shot of espresso and house vanilla syrup. The best seller so far is the Gold Rush, a hot or iced latte with orange vanilla syrup featuring cardamom and rosemary. For kids, the Shirley Temple is an effervescent hit.
“It’s fun to have a batch of kids walk in and send them out with five crimson red bubbly cups of Shirley Temple,” said McEver. “That’s a great refreshing summer beverage for anyone.”
Whammy Coffee Owners Maddie and Mitch McEver.
Barring any major setbacks, Whammy Coffee plans to continue expanding at its offsite roastery, while finding new ways to maintain the fun.
“We would love to start having a Whammy-created little crossword booklet at the register,” said McEver. “Maybe there’s a new one every quarter, a tiny six-page booklet with five crosswords or something that [guests] can pick up for a dollar or two and have with their coffee. Something tangible and fun that is unique to the kind of experience we’re trying to build here.”
Whammy Coffee is located at 1143 1st Ave S, Suite 103, in Birmingham. Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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