Beach Weekend Coffee will open its flagship location at 170 Miracle Strip Pkwy SE in downtown Fort Walton Beach on June 6, bringing the lifestyle brand’s coastal aesthetic and innovative beverage concepts to a 2,400-square-foot space designed to recreate the “beach weekend feeling” for customers nationwide.

• The coffee shop represents the latest expansion of the Beach Weekend brand – a collaboration between Jayme, his brother Bobby Nabors, and partner Brett Divine, who handles marketing for Beach Weekend.

The Beach Weekend brand now includes the Beach Weekend Marina in Fort Walton Beach with 140 slips and 120 rental boats, a second marina in Key West, 14 vacation rental houses on Okaloosa Island, and an 11,000-square-foot waterfront venue. The company also operates a third marina called Island Water Sports on Okaloosa Island.

The coffee venture emerged from the company’s desire to scale their brand beyond the physical limitations of marinas and vacation rentals. 

“We built this lifestyle brand across a lot of platforms and we were trying to figure out where we could identify a product that we could really show our brand and lifestyle and connect with people all across the U.S.,” Nabors explained during an interview at the new coffee shop. “Coffee was the first concept we felt could really represent the brand that we built, and we can distribute it through online subscriptions and through the cafe.”

The concept aims to deliver the Beach Weekend experience to customers far from Florida’s coast. 

• “How can we take the ‘Beach Weekend’ feeling and concept and give it to you away from these products,” Nabors said. “So that you can wake up to a beach weekend somewhere else. Maybe you can get that feeling or remember that vacation vibe that you had with your family through a cup of coffee in the morning.”

Beach Weekend Coffee sources single-origin beans from a farm in El Salvador, importing them through Charlotte where they are roasted and bagged before shipping to Fort Walton Beach. The shop offers traditional coffee drinks alongside innovative beverages that set the brand apart from competitors, including a coffee-nicotine drink called a Nico latte and a nicotine energy drink.

“As more and more research is coming out, there’s a lot of really good health benefits about nicotine that got such a bad rep with smoking and some of the negative delivery mechanisms with nicotine,” Nabors said. “The new clean nicotine really has a lot of nice health benefits. Delivering that nicotine as more of a health benefit through a coffee or through an energy drink is where we’re at in kind of the innovation of the new beverage space.”

• The nicotine-infused beverages are expected to launch in approximately six weeks and will be available both in-store and through online distribution channels. The coffee shop also serves smoothies with fresh fruit and protein, fresh pastries, and house-made quiches and coffee cakes.

The team conceived the idea in mid-January and completed the entire process in about three and a half months, including developing the coffee logo, sourcing beans, setting up importing and roasting operations, designing packaging, ordering equipment, and building out the space.

The flagship location features coastal modern design elements that align with the Beach Weekend brand aesthetic used across all company properties. 

“We used some really nice wood acoustical paneling, neat tiles and some different quartz designs and just an edgy modern feel with a comfortable furniture arrangement, but always cutting edge,” Nabors said. The partners invested beyond traditional buildout costs to create what Nabors calls their “anchor” location.

Unlike many coffee shops that encourage quick turnover, Beach Weekend Coffee is designed for extended stays. The space includes a glass conference room available for hourly rental to the public, with Beach Weekend family members receiving access as part of their benefits package.

This partnership has been instrumental in the family’s broader downtown Fort Walton Beach redevelopment efforts, which began when their mother, Bonnie Nabors, purchased and remodeled a downtown building.

• “My mom really started us off in the downtown space when she bought a building and remodeled it,” Nabors said. “Since then, my brother and I have really worked hard on trying to acquire additional properties, remodel and really try to bring new businesses here.”

The family’s downtown portfolio includes The Boardroom restaurant (now sold), Cowhead restaurant, and Wood Foot Beer Company brewery, which opened last year. Their approach to downtown development evolved from trying to lease spaces to other businesses to opening their own establishments when recruitment proved challenging.

“It’s been very tough. We weren’t as successful as we thought in bringing businesses here, so we ended up opening up the businesses ourselves in hopes to maybe jump start the energy so that other people will come in,” Nabors explained. “It wasn’t something we really were planning on doing but we really wanted to do it the right way. We had the resources available to really go up-and-beyond what a traditional build out in Fort Walton has been historically.”

The coffee shop operates with extended hours from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. The space includes a glass conference room available for hourly rental and comfortable seating designed to encourage customers to stay and work.

Beach Weekend Coffee already operates a smaller location at the Fort Walton Beach Marina, which has been serving coffee for about two months and selling branded merchandise including shirts and hats.

The company offers multiple ordering options for different customer needs. Local customers can order ahead through the Beach Weekend Coffee website or mobile app for pickup, similar to other major coffee chains, with DoorDash delivery also available. 

• For customers wanting to brew Beach Weekend coffee at home, the subscription-based business allows nationwide ordering of beans with regular deliveries once or twice monthly.

The partners plan to expand across the Florida Panhandle over the next year and are considering franchising opportunities.

The grand opening is scheduled for June 6, with soft openings planned beforehand. The company is currently hiring baristas and additional staff members, with interested applicants directed to contact social@beachweekend.com.