How Big Face Coffee Fueled the Miami Grand Prix

Boardroom got a look at the pop-up for Jimmy Butler’s Big Face Coffee brand at the Miami Grand Prix.

Formula 1 team employees, race workers, and VIPs in need of a jolt found salvation at the Miami Grand Prix thanks to one of the city’s premier athletes. In a white trailer featuring red and black lettering, Big Face Coffee — Heat superstar Jimmy Butler‘s coffee brand — kept people going this weekend.

Just outside the exclusive Paddock Club above the 10 F1 team garages — where tickets to get in cost as much as $15,000 — Big Face handed out hot and cold espressos, cortados, cappuccinos, and lattes with various infusions and formulas. Normally, cups could cost up to $20 apiece, but this weekend, it was free. It’s just a small perk offered to those with paddock access, courtesy of what started as a side project for Butler in the NBA’s 2020 pandemic bubble.

Inside the trailer, Boardroom spoke with expert barista Rodney Mustelier, who works with Butler at his home, and estimated that the brand would hand out between 4 and 5,000 cups of coffee per day at the Grand Prix.

“A group of us make coffee at his house,” Mustelier said with machines whirring in the background, also pointing out a few others staffing the Big Face truck. “He’ll have somebody come by and prep him for the game.”

Butler has done other Big Face pop-up concepts in the past, most recently at the Miami Open tennis tournament, also held at Hard Rock. On Friday, Butler was seen walking from the Big Face location across the garage area with a strong stride despite spraining his right ankle and missing Game 2 of the Heat’s second-round playoff series against the New York Knicks. He returned to the lineup Saturday, scoring 28 points in Miami’s 19-point win to take the series lead.

But how much does Jimmy Buckets really know about coffee?

“He knows plenty,” Mustelier said. “Jimmy has a pretty developed palate. And when you give him something that’s off, he’ll tell you that it’s off. So I respect that a lot.”

In a weekend where Miami was the center of the global sporting universe, Butler characteristically made his presence known on the court and just off the track, one cup at a time.