The owners of Godspeed, a pop-up coffeeshop in Five Points, are preparing to complete their long-held goal later this year: a permanent brick and mortar location.
Roger Caughman and Kailey Cunningham began Godspeed in summer 2024, serving coffee from a cart inside of Papa Jazz Record Shoppe. They then moved to the Boyd Innovation Center, giving the shop a wider space to work in. Now, they are settling down in the space where Godspeed was born.
The store announced its return to 747 Saluda Ave. in an Instagram post on Feb. 2.
This new location used to be a Starbucks, and it served as a temporary storefront for Papa Jazz as it underwent renovations in summer 2024. Godspeed held their first pop-up within Papa Jazz's temporary space during that period.
“The goal always was to get to brick and mortar,” Caughman said. “We didn’t want to be pop-up forever.”
According to Caughman, there is not an exact timeline for their move. Ideally, the change in location would take place this summer, but Caughman would not be surprised if the opening date was pushed back towards the fall, he said in an Instagram message.
In the meantime, they will keep their equipment in the Boyd Innovation Center for as long as they can, holding occasional pop-ups. Without regular hours, they will announce these pop-ups via Instagram, Caughman said.
Even before getting Godspeed off the ground, Caughman and Cunningham had their eyes on the former Starbucks location in Five Points, Cunningham said.
While the pair was coworkers at Drip Coffee in Five Points, Richard Burts, the landlord of Papa Jazz, Boyd Innovation Center and the empty Starbucks space, explained to the duo that he was holding the space for Papa Jazz to use during the record store's renovations, Cunningham said.
Burts was also the one who proposed that the two baristas serve coffee in the record store, she said.
“We’re like ‘Sure, we’ll make it happen,’” Cunningham said. “And that was like two months out, and we were like ‘OK, now we have to scramble to make this thing real.’”
While that operation was intended to last for a couple weeks, it went on for four months, Cunningham said .
The combination of the two businesses was mutually beneficial, said Woody Jones, a manager at Papa Jazz. Both stores attracted customers who would then be exposed to the other’s products.
“It seemed like it was sort of a win-win for everyone involved,” Jones said.
While in its temporary location, Papa Jazz was not able to have its entire inventory out for sale, which was a problem for the store, Jones said. If the coffee shop had not been there, the record shop would not have done as well during that transitional period, he said.
Papa Jazz helped Godspeed in return by providing an activity for customers if the coffee shop became backed up with orders, Caughman sai d.
In addition to that mutual exposure, Godspeed benefits from a larger space and a greater feeling of independence in their current location, the Boyd Innovation Center, according to Cunningham. The location is only a few storefronts away from Drip Coffee, where the whole story began.
Even with a permanent location, Godspeed may continue to set up pop-ups, Caughman said.
“Now we’ll just have this cart, otherwise, just hanging out and not being used,” he said. “So we’ll continue to offer pop-ups to people.”
The pop-up model helped prepare the owners for the eventual move to a permanent location, Cunningham said.
Just as the lessons from their start at Papa Jazz helped them transition to the larger space at Boyd Innovation Center, the current location will prepare them for the move to something bigger, she said.
“We’ve been able to just ease into it and not get hit with all the scary stuff right away,” Cunningham sai d.
However, being a pop-up business presents some challenges. They have not been connected to the plumbing of either of their locations, which means they need to purchase water elsewhere. In their first spot, they also had to purchase their own ice for drinks, Cunningham said.
“The nature of it being temporary while we’re trying to feel like a cafe experience can create a lot of complications,” Cunningham said. “But we’re making it work. We do have an ice machine now… so that has helped tremendously.”
Overall, Caughman’s favorite part of running Godspeed is also the reason for its name. Godspeed is a saying for wishing somebody luck as they travel.
“That’s what we feel like we do,” Caughman said. “My favorite part is… to wish one well on their journey and see somebody walking out the door and sipping on a drink that’s making their day a little brighter.”