Get your coffee fix at Cali Coffee

Known for their sweet treats and outgoing personalities, Rose White and Craig Avera spend their days happily serving coffee, milkshakes and homemade energy drinks. They own Cali Coffee, a South Florida drive-thru shop.

“I grew up in Oregon and worked in a drive-thru coffee shop when I was [16 years old] and just fell in love with the business and the idea of opening my own coffee shop one day,” Avera said. “Rose and I ended up meeting in [LA] and then moved here to open the first Cali Coffee in Hollywood [Florida].”

After the official opening of the Hollywood location in September 2018, the store was an immediate hit and had cars wrapped around it for months.

Avera and White pride themselves on making their costumers feel satisfied.

“Our customer service is everything to us and is just beyond what you get from any other coffee shop, restaurant or even business that you go to. When you come to Cali, you just get such a fun experience from our awesome employees,” White said. “We treat you like family and we really care about our customers and genuinely how their day is going.”

Customers have enjoyed their experiences so much that White and Avera opened two more shops in South Florida: The Cooper City location in June 2021 and the Pines location in May 2022.

From starting as a customer to becoming an employee, Lexie Galletta feels it from both sides of the drive-thru window.

“Every time I go in for a shift at the Cooper City store, I hug everybody and get to play the music I want. There are just great vibes all around and we only strive to give that off to our customers,” Galleta said. “On the first day of every month, we do something called ‘Sticker Day.’ We come up with a new unique sticker and customers get it free with every drink.”

Galletta said that these “Sticker Days” bring the most traffic in because customers are genuinely excited to receive free stickers with their drinks. Cali Coffee tends to post each sticker on its Instagram account in advance to increase the anticipation of these days.

White and Avera launched the Cali Coffee Foundation to help serve their customers and the community. In 2020, the foundation held a toy drive and gave 352 toys to children at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.

Two years later, the Cali Coffee Foundation did a hurricane relief drive for those who suffered from Hurricane Ian. “It was beyond successful, and I am so proud of everyone that helped,” Galletta said.

Since Cali Coffee’s original opening, the menu has shortened significantly. This was due to some drinks not selling as much as others, so they reduced the list and combined flavors that were sold together at a popular rate.

“We made room on the menu for some of our best-seller combination drinks like the ‘Infinity.’ This drink came out [May 2021] and now it’s the most popular energy drink. It’s a mixture of blue raspberry and watermelon,” Galletta said.

Although Cali Coffee is predominantly  known  for  its drinks, lesser-known items are their refrigerated protein bars called “The Perfect Bars.” These come in a variety of flavors like peanut butter, chocolate and hazelnut crisp.

Cali Coffee also partners with other businesses and restaurants.

“Occasionally, we partner with Batch Cookies to sell a themed cookie. Recently, we did the ‘Blueprint Cookie,’ which was a chocolate chip cookie with brownie batter filling in the center, and topped with gold dust,” Galletta said, adding that they strive to build and maintain good relations with everyone. “We try to form personal relationships with our customers and make them last as long as possible,” Galletta said.

Avera added, “We don’t want to be generic. We don’t want to just serve coffee. We want each customer to feel special every time they come by, and to have their experience be a highlight of their day,” Avera said.