The Coffee Cabin Co.

Using coffee as way to bring people together, honor loved ones

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A new mobile coffee trailer, The Coffee Cabin Co., has Pensacola buzzing. But the inspiration for the shop runs deeper than the freshly ground beans.

Owner Megan Abbott wasn’t always a coffee drinker. In fact, she didn’t even start enjoying the taste until she was in college. She did learn at a young age, however, how to make it.

She could always count on waking up to the smell of her father’s piping hot pot of coffee brewing. He drank it black, and he wasn’t picky. Even a Styrofoam cup filled up at a gas station would suffice. Eventually, she began preparing it for him as an act of love.

When she fell in love with the liquid gold herself, it became a mutual bond and cherished pastime she shared with her father. She even daydreamed about opening a shop of her own one day.

Then in 2017, when her father passed away, she gained a new perspective.

“It was very hard for me because I was a daddy’s girl,” Abbott said. “It kind of hit me that life is too short to give up on your dreams...One of the things for me is it’s a tribute to my dad. It does bring the memories back.”

Not only were coffee dates a consistent tie to her father, but also one of the ways she grew to know her now best friend, Liz Williams. They had plenty in common, from their husbands enrolling in the same grad school program, to the same number of children, to their mutual distaste of caramel-flavored coffee.

“In the majority of our pictures together, we have coffee in our hands,” Abbott teased. “We were on that same page of life together. She was by my side through all the hard days.”

When it came time to choose a business partner, Williams was the obvious choice.

“We’ve always been instant best friends,” Williams added of their meeting eight years ago. “I really don’t think anything could split us up at this point.”

The two took a leap of faith this year in quitting their 9-to-5 desk jobs to learn to be full-time business owners, along with the help of co-owner Dillon Powell.

Once Abbott and Williams began brainstorming, they initially wanted to open a brick-and-mortar coffee shop that would encourage its inhabitants to get comfy and stay awhile, hence the “Coffee Cabin” business name.

The snug feeling they were hoping to replicate was inspired by Abbott’s upbringing in the foothills of the Appalachia mountains, where she spent many mornings with her fingers looped around the handle of a toasty mug, inhaling fresh mountain air.

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Although they evaluated the cost in overhead of a storefront to be too substantial to start, the Coffee Cabin Co. seemed to be the perfect starting point to build clientele and test out different locations.

Their husbands were immediately on board, even working to build the trailer for the new owners to operate.

“You have the ability to literally pick your business up and go places,” Abbott said.

Some of the locations the two have been frequenting include Meraki Solar and Pensacola Harley Davidson. A weekly schedule with locations and hours is posted online each Sunday.

The trailer’s signature drinks play into the cozy theme, like the Mountain Mocha ($5.50), flavored with white and regular mocha, and topped with whipped cream and a mocha drizzle.

In addition to the cabin-themed options, there are also beach-inspired drinks as a nod to Pensacola, like the Coastal Dreams ($5.50), flavored with mocha, salted caramel and topped with a salted caramel drizzle.

“I’m a mountain girl living at the beach,” Abbott said.

As moms, the two also had to come up with a kid-friendly option, settling on six different flavors of Italian sodas poured into a mega-sized Capri Sun-esque pouch for $3.50, with an optional $.50 upgrade for gummy worms mixed in.

Abbott said the two are testing out seasonal drinks for their menu (hello pumpkin spice) and are also rotating out different baked goods, like freshly made Maynard’s donuts they pick up from the shop in the early morning.

Williams agreed that one of the best parts of the job so far is the connections they make with the people who come to purchase their coffee. Many customers have started making the trailer such a regular stop on their morning commute that the owners know their order and name before the customer pulls off the highway.

“It’s fun to be part of someone’s new routine,” Williams said.

Eventually when they do open an actual storefront, they hope to be a place for people to gather, for Bible studies to meet and for friendships to form.

“So much good comes from a cup of coffee,” Abbott said.

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