Every city has a cup it measures the others against. In Tampa, for a great many people, that cup comes from Buddy Brew Coffee, the roaster that started in a South Tampa garage and grew, one bag at a time, into one of the most familiar names in the Bay area’s coffee life.
A garage, a dog and a crate on the porch
The story begins with Dave and Susan Ward, two self-described coffee devotees who began roasting at home in 2002. At first the coffee was a gift: bags handed to friends and family for the holidays, cups poured at dinner parties. The reaction was strong enough that the couple traded the home roaster for a commercial Diedrich and opened an online shop. Local press has recounted how, in the early days, neighbors bought bags from a crate left on the Wards’ front porch, an honor-system arrangement that says a good deal about the spirit of the place.
The name comes from Buddy, the family dog, who today lives on in the company’s logo. Buddy Brew’s own telling of it is disarmingly simple: the dog stood for joy, loyalty and unconditional love, and that, the company says, is what excellent coffee is about too, “not edginess or snobbiness.”
The roaster on the stage
In 2010 the Wards opened a space at 2020 W. Kennedy Boulevard that was meant to be a working roastery. It became a café almost by accident. As Susan Ward told 83 Degrees at the time, the space had big windows and a great door, so they added a bar, a couch, tables and chairs, and set the roaster on a stage where guests could watch the beans turn. “Anyone can turn a bean brown,” she said. “But to really bring out all of the great natural flavors in each bean, it is a true art and science.”
That idea of roasting as craft, with a profile developed for each new coffee, has stayed at the center of the business as it has grown. Today Buddy Brew’s cafés include Kennedy, Bay to Bay Boulevard, Hyde Park, USF, Park Tower and Armature Works in Tampa, plus a shop in downtown Sarasota. Each keeps the easy, neighborhood feel of the original.
Brew good, do good
The Wards’ motto has always been “Brew Good, Do Good,” and it is more than a slogan on a cup sleeve. Buddy Brew describes it as a commitment to source specialty coffee through direct, equitable relationships with farmers: paying fair prices that help growers thrive and supporting reforestation. The company also offers a line of coffees that give back and accepts donation requests from the community it calls home.
What to order
The pleasure of Buddy Brew is that it rewards both the purist and the person who simply wants a very good cup on the way to work. Coffee lovers can explore single-origin lots and a range of house blends; a recent favorite, Old Florida, is a laid-back blend that pairs bright Colombian coffee, with lively citrus notes, against a sweet, balanced Brazilian. The name is a nod to Spanish moss, citrus groves and long beach sunsets, and it drinks exactly as easily as that sounds.
For warmer afternoons there is Bolt, the company’s cold brew. For those who want to go deeper, Buddy Brew runs coffee classes, sells brewing equipment for the home bar, and offers subscriptions so the beans keep arriving fresh from the roaster.
The verdict
Plenty of cafés talk about community. Buddy Brew has the unusual distinction of having been built by one, from the friends who first asked for a second bag to the neighbors who left cash on a porch. More than two decades after the first batch came out of a garage roaster, the coffee is still roasted with care in Tampa, and it still tastes like an invitation to stay a while.
Buddy Brew Coffee · Cafés across Tampa and in Sarasota · buddybrew.com
