Two Shreveport entrepreneurs are taking their passion for business and coffee and expanding across Shreveport.
Andrew Crawford and Grant Nuckolls embarked on a journey after successfully working together as co-owners of Cuban Liquor and Jacquelyn's Cafe to open the flagship Rhino Coffee/Southern Maid in south Shreveport.
This new location not only merges two Shreveport favorites but is the first Rhino Coffee drive-thru.
This new venture not only brings coffee to South Shreveport but brings a warm nostalgic favorite to an up-and-coming area.
"I think people are excited," Nuckolls said. "Coffee and donuts go together, but to get two local brands together is pretty cool."
"We're just excited to be out here," Crawford said. "This is going to be a cool concept."
More: Local coffee shop open in south Shreveport
How did this concept come about?
Twelve years ago, Crawford opened Rhino Coffee in the South Highlands neighborhood on Southfield Road. This coffee shop was unlike any in the Shreveport-Bossier area.
"We used to do music in the backyard," Crawford said.
As business grew, Crawford began to struggle to find vendors for his coffee beans, he said. In 2015, he and his team began buying and roasting their own beans.
The operation grew, and before long Crawford opened a roasting facility in downtown Shreveport. Today Rhino not only sells coffee in its three store fronts but locally roasted coffee beans in restaurants across northwest Louisiana and even Whole Foods.
"Now we roast tons of coffee," he said.
But how did the Southern Maid idea come into existence?
While Crawford was growing a coffee business, Nuckolls was opening the successful Twisted Root Burger Co. and indulging in Rhino Coffee. "I just started going as a customer to Rhino, and that's where we kind of met," Nuckolls said.
More: Get ready for coffee and donuts in South Shreveport. Rhino and Southern Maid set to open
After these two entrepreneurs met, they began doing events around town such as Derby Days, Wheels in the Hills, CrawFest and the Catahoula Wine Mixer.
Fast forward several years, when Jacquelyn's Cafe went up for sale. "We each kind of independently of each other had the idea of instead of letting them close, would they be willing to sell it to somebody who cared about the brand," Nuckolls said. "We said, 'Why don't we try to do this together?'"
And that was how this partnership began. The co-owners opened Jacquelyn's Cafe under their leadership in 2019, and a year later they did the same thing for Cuban Liquor.