Cuppa Joe’s Cold Brew, Dressed to Suit

Bottoms Up

By Lynda Wheatley | June 6, 2020

You’ve got to hand it to Traverse City’s Cuppa Joe. Among the first businesses to plant its flag in Building 50 when Traverse City’s old state hospital was beginning its transformation into The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, Cuppa Joe has weathered a Starbucks moving in a few hundred yards from its drive-thru location at the southwest corner of Front St. and Garfield Road. And, nearly three months into the not-so-business friendly pandemic, saw its Building 50 location flooded after recent storms.

But does the temporary inability to bake its famous blueberry-lime scones get Cuppa Joe down? Nope. (Us, yes.) In fact, owner  Sandy Daley just told us she’s opening a third Cuppa Joe location in Traverse City in just a few weeks — an east-side sit-down spot in the former Breakaway Cafe & Coffee Bar space at Four Mile Road and US-31.

To celebrate, we hit up Joe’s drive-thru and ordered up our favorite way to start a sunny summer morning: Cuppa Joe’s rich and smooth cold-brew coffee — dressed to impress with sugar-free coconut syrup, many drizzles of chocolate, and whipped cream — quickly transported to a bayside perch at Bryant Park, just a two-minute drive north. $4.51 and worth every calorie. www.cuppajoetc.com