From Jimmy Buckets to Jimmy Barista?
Butler not kidding about his $20 cups of coffee at Disney
The sign outside Jimmy Butler’s door at Disney.
Apparently when earning $32.7 million this year one has to find ways to make ends meet.
So Jimmy Butler came up with a not-so-Mickey Mouse idea that now has his room at Disney World the hub for French-press coffee.
At $20 a pop.
What seemed like a bit of playfulness during an ESPN interview turned into fact with the Miami Heat’s AllStar forward, outed when teammate Meyers Leonard posted a photo from outside of Butler’s door at the Gran Destino resort.
With a one-price-fits-all retail concept, Butler’s “Big Face Coffee” menu includes Latte, Americano, Mocha, Pour Over, Espresso, Macchiato, Cappuccino, Red Eye and Café Au Lait.
Again, the pricing is basic: Small $20; Medium $20; Large $20.
Also made clear on the signage are “Cash Only” and “No I.O.U.’s.”
Buter signed a four-year, $142 million contract with the Heat in July 2019.
Butler’s agent offered background on Twitter, with Bernie Lee posting, “I’ve been waiting for someone to out this. This is outside JB’s door.
He ordered the whiteboard on Amazon and made the sign.”
Butler said it all is part of his entrepreneurial spirit.
“I’m working on my coffee skills,” he told ESPN. “After my career, I’m opening my coffee shop. Right now, I’m charging 20 bucks a cup. So if you want some, come through.”
Demand apparently been strong.
“Twenty bucks a cup, small, media or large. All of it’s $20 a cup,” he said.
To the Heat’s leading man, it comes down to supply and demand.
“Because you can’t get coffee nowhere here,” he said, with the NBA quarantined at Disney since early July, amid the new coronavirus pandemic. “So I might bump it up to 30 bucks a cup. Just depends. People here can afford. So nobody’s complaining.”
Actually there was an initial complaint when it came to finding quality coffee on the NBA’s closed campus.
“I think Jimmy’s got all of it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said last month. “No, I’m just drinking the cheap stuff that’s in my room. No, I miss the good coffee.”
After that comment went public, Café Bustelo, a Heat sponsor, sent Spoelstra a gift basket to tide him over — and save him the Jimmy Butler surcharge.
The Heat might have to remain caffeinated during the playoffs, with their first three postseason games scheduled for early starts, including 4 p.m. Tuesday for Game 1 against the Indiana Pacers, and then 1 p.m. Thursday. has