Cupla Coffee
175 W 200 S Salt Lake City, UT Get Directions
Contact: 385-207-8362
WWW.CUPLACOFFEE.COM IG @cuplacoffeehouse Facebook
Date Visited: November 1, 2019
Welcome to your home away from home!
Step into Cupla Coffee in Salt Lake City, Utah, where you’ll not only find friendly people and flavorful pastries but some rich coffee as well. It was the day after Halloween and I was in dire need for a good cup of joe to wake me up before heading east on my road trip. While interviewing other coffee shops in SLC I was asked quite a few times if I’d been to Cupla Coffee and met “the twins.” A twin-owned coffee shop?! Sounds pretty unique if you ask me. My Dad’s a twin and it would be the coolest thing to see him and my uncle serve coffee and breakfast every day… they’ve talked about it!
I made my way downtown and spotted the Cupla Bakery & Cafe sign. I walked into the Axis Building, to the left, and down the stairs to the basement: welcome to Cupla Coffee. My first basement coffee shop experience; it was super cool! In the “living room” there are tons of chairs to sit on, tables to work at, benches, a book library, and of course the classic coffee shop game of checkers. I loved the industrial look of concrete floors mixed with hardwood, pipe ceilings, and exposed brick.
I made my way through the doorway into the cafe, which was one of the cutest small coffee shops I’ve been in. I was standing below the giant street-level windows which filled the shop with natural light from above. There was a bench made of artificial grass, a full coffee bar, and a minimalist coffee menu.
Have you ever met someone and wondered to yourself “WOW! Have I been friends with this person for years?” That’s how it was introducing myself to Abby and Madi. They were so thrilled about Find That Coffee. Abby hyped me up so much I could feel dopamine flooding my brain! Abby was one of the twins that owned and operated Cupla; unfortunately, Beth, the roaster and fellow twin, had just left before I arrived. Madi is their one and only superstar barista and friend.
The Coffee
Every good conversation starts with a good cup of coffee. So I ordered a latte for a change and began tossing questions at them. Made served me a gorgeous latte with great art on top in a nice glass mug. It somehow tasted even better than it looked. Later on, I ordered a regular coffee as well to really experience both fancy and plain. Their drip coffee was so full of flavor that I didn’t need to add anything to it. Beth - great job roasting! We will have to cheers to your coffee next time I’m in Salt Lake City.
The Food
There were tons of enticing pastries on the counter. I caved for a thick slice of banana bread. Abby makes all of the pastries fresh and makes sure there are paleo, vegan, and keto options available. This banana bread was amazing! They warmed it up a little bit and added a pat of butter; my goodness, I was in heaven!
Their Story
The word cupla means “twin” in Irish-Gaelic. Cupla Coffee has been proudly serving for the past two years and hopes to expand in the future. **As of May 30, 2020, they did! Cupla Coffee now has a new location in Cottonwood Heights. Congratulations!** There were a few major turning points that led them to where they are now. Beth and Abby were raised Mormon but ventured outside the religion and tried coffee. They fell in love with it. The twins picked up jobs serving coffee. If you’ve worked in coffee, you know the days are long and high speed. Life happened and before they knew it Beth and Abby were only able to catch up over the phone, whilst driving home from work. It was tough, they wanted something that would allow them to hang out like they had in the past.
Abby recalled a story that was one of the key inspirers in their decision to start their own coffee shop. One day, Beth was working at a coffee shop when one of her regular customers came in. Unlike any time previously, he was quiet and seemed very distraught. She poured him his coffee and kindly asked him what was wrong. He confided in her that his wife had died the night before and all he wanted to do was have some normalcy so he came there for a cup of coffee. She walked over to him, gave him a hug, and sat with him for hours as he retold stories of his wife. They laughed, they cried, and she was truly there for him in his biggest time of need. Days later, the twins decided that owning a coffee shop, meeting people, and being there for people though coffee was their mission.
The twins love coffee and its power to connect people. It even reconnected them; owning a shop together allows them to spend tons of time together once again. Ultimately, they never have to dread going to “work” either. Abby does the baking and Beth does the roasting - they’re a coffee powerhouse! My biggest takeaway from this whole interview was when Abby told me that life is all about “living the moment.” This is what coffee means to them: it makes you stoked, gives you energy, and wakes you up, yet it allows you to stop for a moment as you savor it.
Bathroom
The way the building is situated the bathrooms are upstairs on the main level. It was a little tricky for me to find, but they were clean and fully stocked. These are the bathrooms for the entire building so Cupla isn’t able to do any fun branding on the walls. For that, I am going to rank these bathrooms an 8/10.