Butler's fingerprints all over Bigface Coffee after Miami departure

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MIAMI – Jimmy Butler is nowhere to be seen. 

There aren’t any pictures of him. His name isn’t anywhere. Basketball isn’t featured at all. All around, though, his fingerprints remain everywhere at his Bigface Coffee shop in Miami’s Design District – even after being traded from the Heat to the Warriors more than a month ago on Feb. 6. 

“He’s very involved,” Bigface’s COO Britt Berg told NBC Sports Bay Area. “We’re texting every day, whether it’s the coffee or the drink menu or the outdoor furniture. He’s kind of had his hand in everything and sees everything before we execute it.” 

It’s the day before Butler is set to play his former team in the city he became beloved in for propelling the Heat to three Eastern Conference Finals and two NBA Finals appearances in his five-plus seasons. It’s my first time in Miami, and venturing to see what one of Butler’s biggest loves is all about was a must before heading home.

By pure luck and timing, Berg, who now hops between Miami, New York and the Bay Area, happens to be at the shop when I am ahead of Butler’s anticipated return. 

What first stands out is the design. The interior and exterior are both very minimalist, direct and to the point. The outside is painted white with a white “BIGFACE” sign that lights up above glass windows and doors that invite natural light. Most of the colors inside are black and white, as well as the outdoor furniture, with metallic throughout inside – like the stadium seating in the back. 

The seating is different from a typical coffee shop. There aren’t small tables lined up, or long ones to share space. In front of the stadium seating that has black pillows to sit on and a space to your side to place your coffee or food is a black leather couch, as well as a black bean-bag style chair. Chill music plays overhead, but not loudly, and an hour in the sultry soul of Bay Area rapper Larry June’s “Life Is Beautiful” radiates the space.

This is Jimmy Butler, through and through. 

Watch him play basketball and you’ll know what I mean. Listen to him and see how he goes about his business and you will understand. Everything has a purpose. Mistakes can’t be an option to reach the end goal. 

The only bold colors are the merchandise he sells, like some of his Bigface soccer kits and a buttery yellow “Joy” hoodie and shirt with the Bigface logo serving as the “o,” as well as the labels on the boxes of his three pour over options. 

There’s Doublestar (fruity and bold from Ethiopia) that has a reddish orange logo that Berg designed. Earthshine (sweet and balanced) has kind of a neon lime color to its label, and Nebula (bright and smooth) is purple. Both Earthshine and Nebula are considered to have multi-region origins. 

“The perception is that celebrities just slap their name on something, and that’s kind of all they do,” Berg said. “I wouldn’t be here if that was the case, because he’s so passionate about it. He tastes every coffee before we release it on the menu. We talk to him about every little detail. 

“It’s really nice to see his passion go through the whole process. That makes our jobs worth it.” 

I choose a pour over coffee of Earthshine and get a guava butter croissant. Butler knows his coffee. Berg knew how much he cared when he brought her to Colombia to taste different beans and gain a new appreciation for the coffee-making process. The care was in the taste of the coffee, too. 

When Butler lived in Miami, Bigface would bring him different flavors and beans to try every Tuesday and Thursday. He isn’t a name to the brand. His heart is the brand.

Each sip is smooth without an aftertaste and no acidity. Sweet and balanced, as advertised. And for those worried about the pricing, one pour over coffee was $10, nothing like some of the rumors about how expensive Butler’s coffee is, starting with him charging players $20 in the NBA’s 2020 Orlando bubble when all this was more fantasy than dream and nowhere near reality. 

The shop opens at 9 a.m., and around 10 a.m. a young fan walks in wearing a black No. 22 Heat Culture Jimmy Butler jersey. His older brother calls him a “super fan.” But across from them, someone can tell the Butler fan wasn’t loving his drink. Again by chance, timing and luck, store manager Kelly McNamee notices and quickly fixes his drink to the delight of the customer, who gives his older brother a sip of how good it now tastes. 

Looking for advice in the possibility that the young fan does one day see Butler, McNamee smiles and tells him, “You just have to talk to him about coffee and don’t ask him for a photo and he’ll love you.”

The day before, Butler was back at Bigface, enjoying coffee and playing dominoes in the outdoor space with Warriors teammate Draymond Green. Butler tells us after Warriors practice, a few hours after my visit to the shop, that he and Green were paired together and didn’t lose once. 

“It's what I really enjoy to do on days off,” Butler said. “Be around my people, play a competitive game, get you locked in and before you know it, it's been five or six hours. Just messing around, playing some dominoes. Me and Dray went undefeated, so that's always great." 

Butler and Berg were really passionate about keeping the business close to the vest at first. Sales began with direct to consumer online, followed by the opening of the shop in Miami’s Design District. Now they’re going the wholesale route to further reach, including Bigface’s canned coffee.

Specialty coffee like Bigface calls for the consumer to finish the product. You need a grinder, you need a kettle, you need devices to finish the product. Their canned coffee eliminates that, and gets them closer to Butler’s objective. 

“Jimmy always says that Bigface is for everybody,” Berg says. “We want it to touch that point, whether it’s a hat or even if you don’t drink coffee. There’s something for you still here.”

Bigface began as an idea and blossomed into a part of Butler that always can be felt in Miami. Just over four years after the NBA bubble, and after a few pop-ups as the business became an actuality, Butler’s first permanent storefront was opened in December of 2024. 

“The shop ain't going nowhere,” Butler insists. “Coffee, myself being around the locals – that's worldly. That has nothing to do with basketball. That's all about having a place to vibe out, chill and not having to worry about signing autographs and taking photos. 

“You just get to go in there and be yourself."

The brand is evolving, too. More flavors, more merch, more collabs. 

Does that mean expansion? 

“Definitely,” Berg tells me. “We definitely have plans for more than one. What that looks like I’m not at liberty to totally say yet, but yes, definitely more than one.” 

Butler is at liberty to say, and does so. 

"A lot more places,” he says. “Definitely in the Bay. But we're talking all around the world. We got some big things coming very soon." 

So does Butler and the Warriors in this never-ending honeymoon stage, starting Tuesday night against the Heat. Butler moved West, but Bigface’s mark on Miami has only begun, with Bay Area and worldly plans in sight.

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