A Tallahassee coffee company with what one broker calls an “absolute cult” following is set to open its first South Florida café in Pembroke Pines, taking over the former Raw Jūce space at 15667 Pines Blvd. in the Paraiso Parc plaza. Lucky Goat Coffee is currently securing a permit with the city of Pembroke Pines, and the new shop is expected to open in late 2026 or early 2027.
The timeline comes from Liz Deese, Lucky Goat Coffee's master broker, who told the Pembroke Pines News that opening is expected to take between four and six months. Deese described the brand's following in stark terms, calling Lucky Goat “an absolute cult,” and said the café is designed to be more than a quick stop for coffee, according to the same report. The Pembroke Pines location will occupy the 1,375-square-foot space inside Paraiso Parc, a retail center sitting adjacent to Westfork Plaza along Pines Boulevard, per leasing documentation from retail broker Katz & Associates.
A High-Traffic Corner for a Growing Brand
The Pines Boulevard site was not chosen at random. Commercial real estate demography records from Katz & Associates show the intersection near Paraiso Parc and Westfork Plaza handles more than 90,600 vehicles daily, within a 3-mile trade area where average household income tops $109,000 — the kind of high-traffic, affluent suburban corridor that has become central to Lucky Goat's site-selection strategy as it expands beyond North and Central Florida.
Lucky Goat was founded in 2010 by Ben Pautsch and Brooke Pautsch, who are both alumni of Florida State University, and the pair opened their first café in Tallahassee's Capital Circle neighborhood. The company originally operated exclusively as a B2B wholesale roasting and coffee distribution business before walk-in customer demand led the founders into retail cafés, according to Florida State University's College of Communication and Information.
From Wholesale Roaster to Statewide Chain
The Pembroke Pines café will mark Lucky Goat's 18th location nationwide. The chain already operates 15 stores across Florida, including cafés in Tallahassee, Orlando, Lakeland, Kissimmee, Rockledge, Jacksonville and Sumterville, and its coffee blends are stocked in more than 475 Publix supermarkets statewide as of late 2024. The company also just opened its newest store in Bryan, Texas — about 100 miles northwest of Houston — on Thursday.
Lucky Goat launched its franchising program in November 2023 to expand beyond its core Tallahassee market, favoring selective partner quality over rapid mass franchise sales, according to the company. That strategy has since carried the brand into new Florida markets: Hoodline previously reported on plans for a Bartram Village café in South Jacksonville and a separate push into South Tampa. Municipal permit filings show the company has also pursued new locations in those markets as part of a broader statewide expansion wave.
What's Driving the Expansion Math
The financial case for that growth is laid out in the company's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, which reported average annual revenue of $1,066,412 per café location and an average of 126,000 drinks served per shop annually, according to Lucky Goat Franchise. Official franchise disclosures published by Entrepreneur.com show opening a Lucky Goat franchise requires an initial franchise fee of $37,500, with total initial investment costs estimated between $195,500 and $496,850.
Lucky Goat has built its reputation partly on old-school coffee standards. The chain exclusively purchases beans scoring 80 points or higher on the Specialty Coffee Association's 100-point scale and avoids offering blended ice drinks, according to reporting by Community Impact. The menu leans instead on espresso, drip coffee and specialty cold brews, including light, medium and dark roasts, along with rotating specialty offerings like Ethiopian Wush Wush coffee with white peach, watermelon and cotton candy notes, cake and confetti coffee, and a brandy-cinnamon Highlander Grogg blend. Café menus also include drinks like the Luckyccino, Goat Bomb, Strawberry Shortcake Latte, lemonade summer sippers, cappuccinos, cortados and lattes.
The Name Behind the Brand
The chain's unusual name traces back centuries. According to Lucky Goat Coffee's official corporate FAQ, the name honors Kaldi, the legendary 9th-century Ethiopian goat herder whose energetic goats discovered the effects of coffee after eating wild coffee cherries.
Lucky Goat also drew federal recognition during the pandemic. In December 2020, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio named the company the U.S. Senate Small Business of the Week, noting that a Paycheck Protection Program loan allowed it to keep 57 employees paid through pandemic closures, per the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. The Pembroke Pines café will operate inside Paraiso Parc Plaza in central Pembroke Pines, offering house-roasted coffee blends, unique drinks and a community space once it opens.
