A free pop-up coffee bar
Tulip Cafe is a coffee bar in the back of a 1990 Volkswagen Westfalia. It parks somewhere in Denver, the awning comes out, and the espresso is free until the batteries run down.
No queueing app, no tip screen, no card reader. You get whatever the machine is dialled in on that morning, handed to you by the person who dialled it in.
Hot or iced, regular or oat milk.
Pulling shots out of the side door.
She came out of the factory red in 1990. A pair of Dutch tulip farmers wrapped her blue, and the name stuck long after the wrap came off. The Westfalia interior is still the original one — it was too good to pull out.
Since then: a Subaru engine, most of the seals, 200 amp-hours of lithium under the seat, and an espresso machine that has no business being in a van.
Weddings, block parties, a Tuesday in an office car park. Tell me the shape of it and I'll tell you if the batteries can carry it.
Dates go out here first, usually about a week ahead. No newsletter, no coffee thoughts — just where the van will be and when.