Catching a Coffee Wave

About 20 years ago, when Andy Kirkwood was an exchange student from Scotland, he’d ride his bike daily from where he was staying to Ventura High School via the Ventura Promenade.

“I fell in love with it here. It’s an awesome place,” says Andy. And the promenade stayed with him, even as he returned to Scotland, married Holly, and they had Amelia, now 3. Andy and Holly had the idea of a coffee kiosk by the sea—specifically, a place on the Ventura Promenade. They had successful careers in Scotland, but after COVID intervened, Ventura beckoned.

“We started with the belief that coffee is a social thing,” says Andy. “People are experiencing physical and mental health problems created by the noise and pain all around us in the society that we have been born into. They’re stressed. Sometimes the best thing is to get outside and get a cup of coffee with old and new friends.”

The couple enlisted the help of Andy’s best friend from high school, Derek Meyer. “I thought it was a cool idea when Andy (and Holly) brought it to me a little over a year ago,” says Derek. “He’s my brother from another continent. I know the ropes when it comes to permitting and other issues.” Derek has been working for years for FortuneBuilders, a company that specializes in entrepreneurship and teaching people how to start and grow businesses.

They decided to set a “hard deadline” of the 2023 X Games, July 21–23, to get things up and running, figuring that the promenade would be the busiest it’s ever been. “Through a series of miracles, we met that goal,” says Derek. “We opened on our deadline.”

The reception was less miraculous.

“It was a flop. It was the worst weekend we’ve had, though there were a lot of victories that came from it,” says Derek, who blamed part of the problem on people thinking they were opportunists from out of town. Things have been better now that the Freedom Coffee cart is becoming an established presence next to Aloha Steakhouse, with an agreement to use the restaurant’s power, water and kitchen temporarily.

Freedom Coffee happily serves local Beacon Coffee. Andy says the menu is largely vegan, with some dairy exceptions. “But it doesn’t taste vegan. There’s also gluten-free. Everything is all from small businesses, and the majority of the menu is organic and sourced locally,” says Andy, noting that the customer favorite is the Hawaiian macadamia/coconut latte, iced with oat milk. “Everything we do has the planet in mind; we are a platinum accredited Surfrider Ocean Friendly Restaurant,” he adds. (For more on ocean friendly restaurants, click here.)

Andy and Holly Kirkwood (pictured at left with daughter Amelia), partnered with Andy’s best friend from high school, Derek Meyer (at right with wife Crissy and son Duke), to create the beach front coffee kiosk Freedom Coffee.

The name Freedom Coffee was carefully selected. “It’s a bit cheeky because we are from Scotland (a nod to Braveheart), but we loved the name because it hits different notes with different people,” says Andy. “We specifically didn’t use stars and stripes [in the logo] because they mean a lot of specific things to different people, which can be about politics. That’s not what we’re about. Freedom Coffee is about freedom from that stress of everyday life.”

Derek says he was surprised at how people in Ventura reacted to the little cart. “I feel like I learned a lot about core Ventura attributes. People were looking at us skeptically when they thought we were outsiders. Nobody knew who we were. When they realized we were local, people were excited we are staying around,” he says.

Andy says they plan to put in a more permanent kiosk with its own electricity early in the new year. Eventually they hope to put coffee kiosks in Ventura and Channel Islands harbors, and any other places that need a little chillaxing.

• Freedom Coffee is located on the Ventura Promenade next to Aloha Steakhouse, 364 S. California St., Ventura. For more information, visit FreedomCoffeeLife.com or call 619-317-4052.