New coffee shop opens with rock star drinks in South Asheville

ASHEVILLE - A North Carolina barista has upgraded from a horse trailer to open a brick-and-mortar coffee shop in South Asheville.

For several years, Savannah Logan honed her brewing skills and learned the business of coffee by working in shops in Wilmington. Her passion was grounded in the products as much as the human connections.

“I’ve always loved coffee shops. I’ve worked at them since I was 17 and I managed one for a few years,” said Logan, 22. “Growing up, I moved around a lot. I was homeschooled. That was the first place I felt like I had a regular group of friends. And I would see people who normally never would interact become friends or talk about a common interest. I felt like so many demographics that have nothing in common still have coffee in common.”

One year ago, she tried her luck as an entrepreneur and launched Lucky Coffee, a mobile coffee bar converted from a horse trailer complete with a pull-down bar, sink and refrigerator and powered by a generator. Logan has used it to serve customers at farmers and art markets, offices, sporting events and more in Wilmington.

This spring, Logan debuted Lucky Coffee’s first brick-and-mortar location at 2619 Sweeten Creek Road. The mobile coffee bar has helped prepare her for the new endeavor in her new home of Asheville, she said.

“I love it. It was a longtime dream and it’s so much fun,” Logan said of the mobile shop. “It’s a lot of work. It’s way different from being in (the coffee shop) because you have to be in the weather, set up and break down, and the generator, getting 20-pound bags of ice. But I still love it and it definitely prepared me for this even more than working at other shops.”

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Logan saw an opportunity to grow in the city she often visited with her family, she said.

“There’s a lot of coffee shops in downtown Asheville and the River Arts District, but over in South Asheville there aren’t a whole lot, especially on this road. There isn’t a whole lot of food or anything,” Logan said.

Lucky Coffee offers traditional hot and cold coffee drinks, including drip coffee, cortado, Americano, mocha, cold brew, nitro and frappe.

To reflect her love for music, the classic coffees have names of classic rock bands, available as hot or cold.

The Rolling Stones is the name for the vanilla chai latte. The Beatles is a combination of vanilla and coconut. Nirvana contains caramel and vanilla.

The Fleetwood Mac is made with honey and lavender. Queen is a blend of white mocha and coconut. And the Pink Floyd is a mix of white mocha and raspberry, which gives it a pink hue.

The artists are on rotation on the coffee shop’s playlist, too.

Lucky Coffee serves Counter Culture Coffee, a Durham-based company that many customers seek out for its quality, sustainability model and climate control outreach education, she said.

The menu also features non-caffeinated drinks, such as hot tea, hot chocolate, chai, matcha, lemonade and the lemonade-tea blend called Arnold Palmer. Milk alternatives are offered at no additional fee with options including almond, coconut, oat and soy.

Extra flavors and other add-ons, like hazelnut and whipped cream, are available for an upcharge.

Lucky Coffee’s hours are 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Hours will be extended later to welcome the after-work and school commuters who travel down Sweeten Creek Road, she said.

She plans to upgrade the pasty offerings of baked goods and packaged snacks, and expand with outdoor seating, too.

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It took nearly three months to transform the storefront before its soft opening on April 27. The revamped space features fixtures, vintage furniture and décor pieces, including a custom wood counter and brick wall façade hand-selected and hand-constructed by Logan and her boyfriend, Wesley Regnier.

Original art is displayed and available for purchase at the shop.

“I love the environment and I love to be able to support local artists,” she said.

Potted plants lend to the cozy ambiance.

“I’ve always wanted it to be homey and comfortable for people,” Logan said.

Lucky Coffee is welcoming canine clients, too, as a dog-friendly café. The business was named after Logan’s dog who she’d had since she was five years old, she said. Lucky, a German Shephard mix breed, was 18 years old when he died earlier this year.

The Sweeten Creek Road location resonated with Logan as it’s surrounded by residential streets, and the neighbors have been welcoming, she said. It’s had a different dynamic from when she worked in coffee shops near colleges in Wilmington, she said.

“It’s all neighborhoods of families and really awesome people,” Logan said.

Logan’s witnessed how coffee shops can bring people together and hopes to create a welcoming space where diverse demographics may connect, converse and find a retreat.

“I’ve seen people go on their first dates or meet up with friends. It’s such a nice environment to take people away. … Take a step away from reality for a minute. Go grab a drink with a friend," Logan said. “Genuinely, I just want to have a good community of people that come here. We all get together and make people happy and forget about the stress of everything else.”

The Lucky Coffee mobile coffee trailer will roll again in the Asheville area beginning in late summer. Booking requests may be made online.

Lucky Coffee

Where: 2619 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville

Hours: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Info: For more information, visit luckycoffeellc.com, call (828) 505-1242 or follow on Instagram @luckycoffeellc or at facebook.com/luckycoffeellc. 

Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter/Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times. 

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Get a taste of Queen, Nirvana at Lucky Coffee in Asheville