9 January 15–21, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | A drive-thru coffee shop is Fort Lauderdale’s best-kept secret. BY VICTORIA STANZIONE N ot much has changed since Ex- presso Coffee opened in 1992. The old Dairy Queen building, which it calls home, still stands, proudly serving coffee to Bro- ward County residents on busy mornings for over 33 years. On any given morning, the line at the cof- fee shop snakes past the curb just south of Broward Health and the downtown Fort Lauderdale courthouse, a parade of familiar cars whose drivers barely need to speak be- fore their orders are already in motion. There’s no parking lot, no seating, and no Instagram-ready latte art, just a tiny drive- through hut that has been quietly fueling Fort Lauderdale for more than three decades. That longevity is no accident. Expresso Coffee has been owned and operated since 1994 by longtime friends and business part- ners Jon Robichaud and Suzy Ludlow. It ex- ists today because of a broken-down Ford E-150 van, a cement-block building that sur- vived Hurricane Andrew, and an inherent re- fusal to chase coffee-shop trends. What began as a temporary stop for a young duo in their mid-twenties, traveling cross-country and stranded in Fort Lauderdale after their van’s engine failed, turned into one of Broward County’s most enduring caffeine institutions. Expresso Coffee looks much the same as it did in the 1990s, serves beans roasted to exacting stan- dards, and has built a fiercely loyal following by staying exactly the same. Robichaud and Ludlow began working at Expresso Coffee in 1993, living out of their disabled van while saving enough money to fix its engine and get back on the road. Instead, they fell in love with Fort Lauderdale and decided to make it their home. After a year behind the counter, they pur- chased the shop in 1994, when the original owner opted to expand and franchise the busi- ness. More than 30 years later, they still own and operate the original location, often work- ing alongside family members. After the prop- erty’s longtime owner passed away, the team also bought the land beneath the shop, secur- ing not just their business but a rare piece of permanence in a rapidly changing city. The squat building was originally con- structed as a Dairy Queen, identical to the one in Wilton Manors, and was built in the same year. After the ice cream chain moved on, the space cycled through a series of short-lived incarnations, including a motorcycle shop, a used luxury car lot, and a dry cleaner. None of them lasted. Expresso Coffee did. Today, about 20 cus- tomers have been coming regularly since the early 1990s. Tried and true, the shop has sur- vived not only hurricanes but also redevelop- ment booms, shifting tastes, and the rise of “Instagram coffee,” holding its ground by do- ing exactly what it has always done. At the heart of Expresso Coffee is the cof- fee itself. Part of the shop’s longevity and con- sistency stems from long-standing relationships with two private roasters, one of which has been working with the business since its inception. “We have the highest quality coffee in Broward County. I assure you of that,” Robichaud says. The beans are sourced from top planta- tions around the world, roasted to order, and shipped overnight directly to the drive- through-only shop. Flavor, Robichaud em- phasizes, comes from the beans, not syrups, although premium syrups are available for those who request them. Each day, Expresso offers five rotating flavored coffees, all cre- ated during the roasting process rather than added afterward. Their flagship drink, the “Morning Express,” is a Vienna roast brewed with cin- namon grounds, milk, and a sweetener, a recipe inspired by bed-and-breakfasts in Maine. Robichaud prefers his with honey, which the shop often carries, sourced lo- cally. For longtime customers, not much about Expresso Coffee has changed, and that’s the point. The shop still runs on an old-school cash register. The look and feel remain largely untouched, frozen some- where in the 1990s. The biggest evolution has come from the food. Many items are now made in- house, often by Ludlow herself. When she’s not serving coffee, she’s mashing ba- nanas for homemade banana bread or pud- ding, or baking fresh batches of cookies. And while loyalty programs elsewhere have moved to apps and QR codes, Expresso Coffee has stuck with what it knows. A paper punch card. Buy 10 coffees, and the 11th is free. No downloads re- quired. Expresso Coffee has always felt like a family operation. Over the years, Robichaud’s son and nephew have worked the window, alongside other longtime staff who have become part of the extended Expresso family. In more than three de- cades, fewer than 150 people have worked there, an unusually low turnover rate for a coffee shop. That continuity extends to the custom- ers. About 20 peo- ple, Robichaud says, have been coming regularly since 1992. The daily crowd reflects the shop’s location and rhythm. Hospital staff between shifts. Lawyers and courthouse employees stop in before work or during breaks. Travelers are grab- bing a final cup on the way to the air- port. Many regu- lars are so familiar that orders are al- ready underway as soon as their cars come into view. Kids get free bananas. Dogs get treats. It’s a drive-through experience built on speed and familiarity. Nikki, Expresso’s longtime marketing lead, says that loyalty comes from consis- tency. While other coffee shops chase trends or aesthetics, Expresso has remained deliber- ately unchanged, a place people return to be- cause it feels the same. That sameness is strategic. The drive- through-only model keeps costs low. Fast ser- vice keeps the line moving. Ownership of the land has shielded the business from the rede- velopment pressures that have erased so many South Florida institutions. More than 30 years after a broken-down van brought them to Fort Lauderdale, Expresso Coffee is still here, not because it re- invented itself, but because it never needed to. Expresso Coffee. 1900 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 954-527-1222; instagram.com/ex- pressocoffee. [email protected] Expresso Coffee photo Expresso Coffee photo Top: Fort Lauderdale drive-thru coffee shop Expresso Coffee has been Broward’s best- kept secret since 1992. Above: Business partners Jon Robichaud and Suzy Ludlow with their van in the 1990s. Window Shopping ▼ Café
