Three years after opening their original coffee shop just days before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses across the country, the owners of East Pass Coffee Company have expanded to a new location with more space and offerings to better serve their loyal customers.

• East Pass Coffee held a soft opening Friday for its new shop at 121 Benning Drive before the official grand opening Saturday. The new space, which formerly was a private home, has room for more seating, an expanded food menu and a spacious outdoor area.

“It feels great. It’s really amazing, truly, to see the community support,” co-owner Mackenzie Destin said. “We have always made the locals our priority, and I feel like they’re really showing that love in return.”

Mackenzie Destin opened the original East Pass shop across from Burrito Del Sol in March 2020, with her husband Grant Destin and their friend Hayden Shaw. They had to close 10 days later as the pandemic hit and had to adapt.

“The support and loyalty of those who love East Pass is why the new shop was born,” Mackenzie Destin said.

The larger space allows East Pass to offer new lunch items like smash burgers, chicken sandwiches and grain bowls along with its signature coffee drinks. They are also now serving craft beer and wine.

Mackenzie Destin said they want to host events like popup shops with local artists and cult movie nights to make it a community gathering spot, especially since the location borders a neighborhood. A fence is planned around the large outdoor seating area to make it more kid-friendly.

The new building’s previous owner, ‘Dotty’ Bingham, taught swim lessons and tutored children there for years, including co-owner Grant Destin. The Destins kept some design elements from the old house but extensive renovations took place to get it to where it is today. For instance, the espresso bar sits in what was once a coat closet.

“Tons of people have actually grown up in this house, which is wild,” Mackenzie Destin said. “We didn’t want to tear it down.”

• It took more than a year to renovate after they bought it. As for the pool where Destin kids learned to swim, it is now filled in with picnic tables above. 

Despite only having a soft opening Friday, customers crowded into the shop to try the new food and drinks. The steady stream kept the locally-focus coffee company busy over the weekend, even as they transitioned over to a new POS system and got acclimated with the new space.

“The draw for us has always been that it feels like you’re walking into a family,” Mackenzie Destin said. “As long as we are treating all of our customers with the same kindness we always have, they’ll understand some of our glitches as we get started. We have always made the locals our priority, and I feel like they’re really showing that love in return, which is really nice.”

As for some favorites on the menu, here’s what Destin recommends:

• “If you haven’t come to us before, I would recommend the ‘breakfast sandwich’ for breakfast, the smash burger for lunch and then the salted honey for coffee,” she said. “If you have come to us before, I would also try the Harvest Bowl, it’s amazing. All of our dressings and salsas are homemade, and the focaccia on the gabagool is homemade. So we try to do as much from scratch as we can.”

East Pass Coffee is open 7 days a week from 7:30am – 3:00 pm