Now serving Beach Street: Downtown Daytona adds another indie coffeeshop

DAYTONA BEACH ― When the owners of Copperline Coffee + Cafe began looking for a new location here a few months ago, they wound up buying a building rather than lease another space.

Owners Nick and Amelia West along with partner Dorothy Hopper held a "soft opening" of their new Copperline location at 118 S. Beach St. this week.

Downtown Daytona Beach is now home to two independent coffeeshops. Sweet Marlays' Coffee a block to the south at 214 S. Beach St. celebrated its 13th anniversary this month.

The city's historic business district also welcomed the opening in September of Driink Kava Bar at 204 N. Beach St. It serves non-alcoholic beverages made from kava roots, botanical teas and coffee made from mushrooms.

What is Copperline?

The Wests who live in New Smyrna Beach also own two Copperline locations in Port Orange.

The coffeeshops are named after a James Taylor tune the couple heard during a trip to Colorado. Nick West suggested naming the business after the song because espresso machines use copper lines.

The business began in 2014 under a different name: The Cassadaga Coffee Company. It was an espresso stand inside the lobby of the Cassadaga Hotel in West Volusia County.

How it grew to three locations

Their growing customer base prompted the Wests to open a full-service coffeeshop by leasing a 1,680-square-foot storefront space at The Pavilion at Port Orange in 2017. The move coincided with the shop's name change.

They opened a second Copperline coffeeshop at One Daytona, across from Daytona International Speedway, in 2019.

The Wests expanded their Pavilion at Port Orange location last year by taking over a neighboring space to increase its size to 4,400 square feet. They also made Hopper a partner and added a second Port Orange location: a coffee kiosk inside the new AdventHealth Medical Complex on the southeast corner of Taylor Road and Williamson Boulevard. The kiosk is run by Hopper's sister, Beverley Clifton.

Why they wound up buying their own building

When the lease for the 1,300-square-foot space at One Daytona ended in June, the Wests started looking for a larger location.

They paid $1.4 million to acquire the two-story, 8,070-square-foot building at 118 S. Beach St. on Sept. 1, according to Volusia County property records.

"When we first started looking to put Copperline in a bigger space in Daytona, I immediately zoned in on Beach Street," said Amelia West. "I called around asking for rents and it was as much as a very large mortgage. It seemed like the better business move (to buy a building)."

The one the couple bought was built in 1940 with a 5,520-square-foot restaurant space on the ground floor and a 2,550-square-foot office space on the top floor. The ground floor includes a covered "front porch" the Wests have furnished with tables, rocking chairs and other seating.

It's four doors south of International Speedway Boulevard, across the street from the south section of the city's new Riverfront Esplanade which had its grand opening Oct. 6.

"Beach Street, it was already so cool, but now we have the Riverfront Esplanade," said Amelia West. "I'm super excited about the location."

The Daytona Copperline is in a building that's had several businesses over the years including Legends Restaurant & Lounge and ScuttleButts Pub Restaurant.

What sets Copperline apart?

Nick West and Dorothy Hopper oversee Copperline's staff and daily operations while Amelia West, an interior designer for Paytas Homes, handles the business duties. She is also responsible for the coffeeshops' country lodge feel. The furniture is an eclectic mix of rocking chairs, couches, upholstered high-back chairs and coffee tables as well as more standard coffeeshop seating. The walls are painted in dark moody colors and adorned with deer antlers and paintings. The ceilings have hanging Christmas lights, chandeliers and bunches of dried flowers.

Amelia West said she set out to design Copperline coffeeshops to be comfortable and "visually unique." "We've learned in this day and age that having a place that's Instagram-able has been really great for getting your name out there," she said.

Adding to the ambiance is the constantly playing mix of indie folk, bluegrass, country, blues and even hip-hop music, all personally selected by Nick West.

"We just put what we like on it. We listen to a little bit of everything," he said of his stores' music playlists.

Copperline serves organic coffee, espressos and teas, and homemade baked goods, desserts and Southern-style comfort food such as its fried chicken biscuits-and-country gravy and chicken-and-waffles.

The Daytona Copperline is open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

What others are saying

Port Orange resident Chris Atwell has been a regular customer of the Copperline at The Pavilion. He also frequents downtown Daytona.

"To say I'm thrilled would be an understatement," the real estate consultant/educator said of the new Copperline on Beach Street. "They've done a great job with the front porch and are really helping to elevate the area."

Nancy Keefer, CEO of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, welcomes the addition of Copperline to downtown. "Beach Street continues to evolve with the completion of the Riverfront Esplanade, the new Brown & Brown headquarters and new and exciting events," she said. "This will attract new businesses and provide new customers for existing businesses."

Tammy Kozinski co-owns Sweet Marlays' with her husband Ed. She said she grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where there are "all different kinds of coffeeshops, each with totally different vibes."

Sweet Marlays' serves European-style espresso drinks and teas as well as made-from-scratch baked goods.

"I'm hoping the Esplanade will definitely bring more people to downtown," Kozinski said. "Business for us has been really good ever since the crazy COVID time that hit everybody hard."

April Petterson owns Drink Kava Bar along with Colin Smith and Sam Tortorice. She said she's not worried about the new nearby Copperline. "Business has been amazing," she said of her shop which opened Sept. 22.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Now serving Beach St.: Downtown Daytona adds another indie coffeeshop