Would you wait in line for 45 minutes to pay $10 for a cup of coffee? Then you will love Bigface, Jimmy Butler’s celebrity-branded coffee pop-up that’s currently taking over the Square Corner Store in the former Lucca Ravioli space.
Tonight is another of those Valencia Live! night markets on Valencia Street, which now come with bars selling to-go alcohol. But the hottest destination on Valencia Street Thursday night may be three blocks south of that action, where the unholy trinity of celebrity licensing deals, Instagram traps, and Big Tech marketing all come together. Warriors’ star Jimmy Butler’s new brand Bigface is having a pop-up inside that Square Corner Store in the former Lucca Ravioli space, a two-and-a-half week addition to the Bigface stores that already exist in Miami and San Diego.
The line to get in was about 30 people deep at 11:15 am Thursday, with about 20 people inside (many more also waiting in line to be served). A door monitor stood allowing people in only when there was capacity. Today was opening day, so those crowds will likely die down on weekdays, though could be even larger on weekends. Eater SF was there about two hours before we were, and reports that “There were platoons of influencers making content,” and of their trip inside, they say the “ambiance is sort of Nintendo store-ish.”
Per Eater SF, the temporary store will be there at Valencia and 22nd streets from today though Sunday, July 27, from 9 am to 6 pm. Though Mission Local’s report adds that the shop will be open until 8 pm tonight to capitalize on the night market crowd.
Will Jimmy Butler himself actually show up? He was not at Thursday morning’s opening, and I would bet money that Jimmy will be in Cancun for the entirety of this pop-up’s run while his accountants count the money he’s making off this. But according to Mission Local, Bigface’s head of marketing indicated that "he does like to visit his stores multiple times.” So I guess we’ll see!
In terms of the menu, Eater SF reports that it’s $10 for a pour-over, $8 for a cold brew, and $100 (!) for a “coffee flight.” You can also buy a box of “Rwanda washed filter coffee” for $40, plus there are also pastries supplied by Bernal Heights’ Black Jet Bakery.
And there’s a little homage to Lucca Ravioli, as this coffee shop is selling boxes of pasta, plus olive oil and marinara sauce.
Meanwhile, the staff are wearing t-shirts that say “Better to have Lucca’d and lost than to not have Lucca’d at all.”
It’s unclear whether you can buy those, but the shop will happily sell you a Bigface t-shirt, which Eater SF reports are — yikes! — $75. But the target demographic seems the sneaker-hound and celebrity fan demographic, so maybe that is just the going rate for a t-shirt among that set.
And the payments processor Square still runs the place, so you’d better believe they will not accept cash under any circumstances.
Bigface is more of a “takeover” of the Square Corner Store than a “pop-up” within it, as Square has ceded most of the branding on the interior and exterior of the shop to Bigface. You would barely know this is the Square Corner Store except for that little whote box above.
Yet this seems a deal where Jimmy Butler’s team is getting paid by Square, rather than vice versa. Bigface will transform this techie retail concept into a red-hot destination that hopes to get hashtagged like mad for the next couple weeks. There are oodles of places with a block or two where you can get a coffee much more quickly and inexpensively, but none will have the starfucker quality that 1100 Valencia Street will have from today through July 27.
Related: Barack Obama Dined at Quince Last Night, Possibly With Marc Benioff [SFist]
Images: Joe Kukura, SFist
