The St. Augustine-based “Kook community” is flocking to Alachua for the opening of the Kookaburra coffee shop’s newest hub.  

The Australian-inspired specialty coffee shop opened at 11694 Research Dr., Ste.10 on July 15 as part of a new complex of buildings in Progress Park. 

Kookaburra manager of marketing and Nocatee location manager, Geneva Smallwood, estimated the Alachua location is already selling at rates above expectations and comparable to their other full-kitchen locations.  

“If we’re going to expand outside of our immediate St. Augustine/Jacksonville area, this is a really good place to get our toes in the water,” Smallwood said of the shop’s opening week. “This is a big, big next step for the Kook.” 

The Kookaburra has brought a taste of Australia to Aussies thousands of miles from home along with Floridians since Spencer Hooker and Megan Vidal opened the original downtown St. Augustine location in July 2012.  

After noticing a need in the community for a coffee shop that sought out personal connections with its customers, dual Australian American citizen Hooker wanted to brew Australian culture through its coffee and food into the community. 

What started as just an espresso machine and “good vibes” has grown into seven locations, with the newest in Alachua. 

“We always say that it’s people first, coffee second,” Smallwood said. “We are who we are here because of the community of St. Augustine building us up.” 

Most of the food and drink items on the Kookaburra menu were inspired by Hooker’s family in Australia, or his own experience living there. The crew fires up the kitchen every morning at 4 a.m. to prepare the Aussie breakfast and lunch pies from scratch.  

The pie flavors include favorites like the Jackaroo with sausage, egg, sweet potato, spinach, broccoli and pepperjack, and the meat pie with minced meat and onions in a tomato gravy. 

“We’ve had so many Aussies come in over the years that say, ‘this tastes like home,’ ‘it tastes like an Aussie’s mom [made it], and it’s because it’s [Spencer’s] mom’s recipe,” Smallwood said.  

The drinks include coffee combinations iconic to Australia, such as the Flat White espresso, along with traditional cappuccinos, lattes and house-made chai, all served in mugs handcrafted by a local artist.  

The Kookaburra makes its own syrups in house, roasts its own coffee beans and maintains personal relationships with its Colombian, Guatemalan and Honduran farmers who have been long-time suppliers of the shop’s beans. 

If a recipe didn’t come from Hooker’s family, it was inspired by a customer’s unique order. Kookaburra’s most popular drink is the Honey Badger, one customer’s vanilla latte creation made with a blend of local honey from around Northeast Florida and cinnamon.  

The shop eventually assembled boxes of Honey Badger ingredients for purchase after enough customers attempted replicating the drink on their own. 

“We’ve set the standard now that people are expecting for a long time and that’s what we’re known for at this point,” the Alachua Kookaburra’s front-of-house manager Cierra Beard said. 

But even though their products are top tier, Smallwood doesn’t believe that’s the only reason people are driving from across the state and country to visit the Kookaburra. 

“We work really hard as a brand and as the people behind the counters to make people’s days every day, and be extra engaging and [provide] extra customer experience forward so that we can surpass surface level [interactions],” Smallwood said. “All of our baristas have relationships with our customers, it goes beyond just giving them coffee.” 

Everything from how the baristas bring customers’ drinks instead of setting them on the counter for pickup, to making eye contact and handing straws to them is intentional for fostering personal connections inherent to Australian coffee culture. 

“Walking coffee out is kind of traditional for an Australian cafe experience, it’s not very common in America,” Smallwood said. “They sit down, get to know each other, it’s a little bit slower pace than it typically is in America, so we are trying to lean into that.” 

Both Beard and Smallwood said the Kookaburra’s investment in employee career development helps attract the right kind of team to cultivate their mission of intentional connection through coffee.  

After starting her Kookaburra career as a barista, Beard participated in the company’s Bonza program. The program is named after an Australian term for “first-rate” or “excellent,” and looks to educate employees on running a coffee shop, down to the very science of the beans themselves. Beard said Kookaburra’s opportunities to grow and learn in her career drove her to move to Alachua to be part of opening the new location.  

“Everyone we’ve hired has been rockstars,” Beard said. “I’m so happy to be here and so excited to see what more is going to come of this.” 

The Kookaburra also looks for ways to give back to the community outside of its shop walls, such as donating coffee to local schools for teacher appreciation days and hosting events to build up the specialty coffee community.  

In September, the Alachua Kookaburra location will host a latte art “throwdown” where baristas from across Florida enter a bracket competition to create the best-looking latte. 

“It’s a really good community building,” Smallwood said. “We’re always focusing on building up neighbors and creating community within the specialty coffee field. We wouldn’t be here if we were isolated.” 

The Kookaburra in Alachua is open every day from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Customers can accumulate points with every purchase and work towards earning free coffee and merchandise. 

Smallwood said even a few weeks into the new operation, the Kookaburra is already planning for the future. With a full-sized kitchen now established in Alachua, they hope to open and support smaller locations to continue growing Australian coffee culture throughout Florida. 

“We want you to leave happier than the second they came in. Even if [you] came in ecstatic, we want [you] to leave even happier,” Smallwood said. “We strive really hard to go beyond just the basis of customer service and be more about customer experience from the second they walk in the door to the second they leave, and that includes engagement, that includes connection and having really great coffee.”