MILWAUKEE – Before boarding a plane leaving Miami, arriving in Milwaukee and assembling his Game 1 masterpiece, Jimmy Butler needed an espresso grinder.
He doesn’t do anything before coffee.
With the six-time All-Star stationed in Milwaukee for five days for the first two games of the Miami Heat’s first-round playoff series, Butler had to have his usual trophy.
“Coffee is everything, man,” Butler told The Athletic on Tuesday. “Coffee. My friends. My family.”
In this order? Possibly. Butler takes his beans so seriously.
He is the founder of Big Face Coffee, a brand that specializes in high-end coffee but also offers other goods and merchandise. He founded the company out of the NBA bubble in Florida in 2020, where he charged his pro basketball brothers $20 a cup. Since then he has seen the company flourish.
Jimmy knows Joe.
He only needed one grinder for the week while fighting the Bucks.
“I have one in the house,” Butler told The Athletic. “We just take our machine and we take our beans and we take our cups. But a mill is heavy. It’s hard to travel with a lot of time. So if you can find someone to lend you one, no matter what city you’re in, that’s always a good thing.”
Even during the playoffs.
Butler put his people on the prowl. His team was looking for a machine in Milwaukee. Her search led her to Ryan Hoban, 38, owner of Interval, a cute little shop on the corner of N. Jackson St. and E. Pleasant St., a mile from the shadow of Fiserv Forum on the city’s East Side.
Hoban nearly screwed up the best transaction of his eight-year career in the coffee business.
He was on the golf course and enjoying a comfortable break in Milwaukee’s unpredictable April weather last Saturday. At hole #3, his phone started buzzing non-stop. Another local coffee shop owner who had previously worked with Butler’s Baristas had been hired to help. He turned to Hoban.
“I thought it was for his shop,” Hoban said. “I said, ‘Hey man, I’m sorry. I have no.’ Then he texted me back. I said, ‘Is yours down in the store?’ And he said, ‘Oh no, that’s not for me. It’s for Jimmy Butler.”
“I quickly remembered that I have an espresso grinder because it was for the frigging Jimmy Butler.”
Hoban contacted Butler’s representatives and obtained an address in the northern suburb of Mequon to deliver the mill. He assumed that he would team up with the middlemen and women for the exchange. He brought samples of his shop’s coffee to share with Big Face’s big wigs. But the black SUV parked in the driveway with security guards nearby set off alarm bells.
Hoban went in and set down his grinder. He met the crew when they were installing the espresso machine.
‘And then Jimmy Butler came around the corner,’ said Hoban. “I don’t get weird when I see people a lot. But when Jimmy Butler walked around the corner, it was like, “Holy cow. It’s Jimmy Butler.”
The two chatted briefly over coffee and the Bucks. Hoban told Butler to go easy on his bucks. Butler, said Hoban, told him to tell his bucks to go easy on him. Hoban was paid a weekly rental fee for his services, although he didn’t do it for the money. He just thought it would be cool to help Jimmy Butler “freak out.”
“We’ve just worked out a little arrangement that’s been very helpful to us,” Hoban said. “We’re just a small coffee roastery and business. I think all specialty coffee shops have been watching Big Face and what Jimmy is up to since the bubble. It was really cool to watch.”
Hoban described Butler as “very nice” and “very sweet”, “a really nice guy” and “very down to earth”. He also confirmed that Butler knows coffee.
“I think a lot of people might think his coffee thing isn’t very serious,” Hoban said. “But it’s super serious. I think he’s taking it pretty legitimately. He was at Origin (Coffee Lab in Peru). They roast great coffees, they source great coffees from great producers around the world. Jimmy has sold some of the coffees that Big Face has to some of the same producers and coffee growers that we work with.”
Hoban has been joking with friends all week that he and Butler are boys now.
“I felt like a little coffee tycoon texting on the golf course with Jimmy’s team,” Hoban said, laughing. “I’m just a small coffee roaster, a small coffee shop owner in Milwaukee. It felt pretty cool.”
Until Hoban’s two sons, 11 and 10, almost disowned him.
With an espresso grinder, Butler had just what he needed to dominate the Bucks in Game 1 on Sunday. He had a game-high 35 points with five rebounds, 11 assists and three steals. He made 15 of 27 shots in 43 minutes. He lost 24 points in the first half.
“I watched it with my two sons,” Hoban said. “They were mad at me all first and second quarters because Jimmy was just going crazy. And then I kept getting texts from a few people I was telling the story to. They said: ‘This is on your account.’ ”
Hoban conceded.
“I’ve said to some of my guys, ‘If the Bucks lose, I’m going to take that ‘L’ because I’m going to help my boy get caffeine on the show,'” he said. “I have to admit that to myself.”
Thanks to his grinder, Hoban helped Butler stay calm during the most stressful part of the Heat season. Butler doesn’t back down under pressure. But his normality counts.
“Just being a normal person and doing what I do on a daily basis, whether it’s at home or on the go, that’s part of my routine,” Butler said of his coffee. “It’s part of being consistent. And it’s part of keeping basketball, basketball and you as a normal person.
Hoban will pick up his grinder sometime on Wednesday. Butler may not be there to say goodbye to him. Hoban hopes hell the Bucks win Game 2 – and the series – lest he run out of town. A Bucks win on Wednesday guarantees a Game 5, meaning Butler will be back.
Hoban does not take the connection lightly, however brief it may be. Butler may be his most famous customer, but what Hoban loves most is connecting with ordinary people through coffee.
“That’s what drives me to do what I do every day, serving people coffee,” he said. “I think that’s the ultimate balance. This species shows that again.
“Jimmy Butler has to find an espresso grinder on the go during the playoffs. And being able to help him and serve him in that way is what I love about coffee.”
(Photo by Ryan Hoban: Courtesy of Hoban)