Bad Ass Coffee

If a name alone made a place then Bad Ass Coffee would be the ultimate in all coffee shops. Fortunately, the Bad Ass Franchise has a lot more going for them than the marketable name. With two locations in Jacksonville, one on Southside across the street from the Tinseltown Plaza and the other on Beach Boulevard between 9A and Kernan, Bad Ass is a nice corporate alternative to some of the bigger chains.

The Bad Ass name comes from the legend of the "Bad Ass Ones" or Kona Nightingales, donkeys used to carry loads of coffee up and down the mountainsides on the Hawaiian island of Kona. Regardless of the legend's validity, Bad Ass has adopted the donkey as their mascot and uses the story as an excuse to use the "Bad Ass" name.

Decorated in exaggerated Hawaiian themes and lined with all sorts of branded merchandise, Bad Ass Coffee is an almost cartoonish satire of the modern coffee franchise that I would more expect to encounter in some bizarre video game than down the street from my house. But despite the weirdness of it all, Bad Ass is a comfortable place to relax with one of the many varieties of coffee or tea.

I'm quite fond of the 100% Kona coffee brew (which is very reasonably priced compared to standard coffee shop fare) and the latte. The flavored drinks, of which there are an abundance, are typically a bit too sweet for my tastes and are made with syrups, as is the standard. One of the many unique approaches Bad Ass takes to the coffee experience is that the ice cubes in the iced coffee are actually made from brewed coffee themselves so, as they melt, your iced coffee does not become watered down and when you're done you'll have some extra doses of caffeine to suck on.

If you're looking for a good cup of coffee from an atypical source or just want to transport yourself to a strange caffeinated cartoon world, head to Bad Ass Coffee.

Bad Ass Coffee
4352-1 Southside Blvd.
Jacksonville, FL 32216
904-645-7160

11925 Beach Blvd. Ste #201
Jacksonville, FL 32246
904-620-0000