On and off the court, what a 2024 Miami Art Week it was for Jimmy Butler. The six-time NBA all-star and Miami Heat fan favorite opened his first coffee shop, BigFace Coffee, in the city’s burgeoning and ultra-luxe Design District. He had three home games and his Heat won all of them, including a 41-point thumping of the L.A. Lakers. And even after all of that, he was everywhere around town, from catching a Lil Wayne gig at E11EVEN to attending an immersive installation-meets-dinner with artist Hassan Hajjaj and top chef Rose Previte.
Forbes Travel Guide sat down with Butler at the latter affair, which was presented by Capital One and The Cultivist and dubbed DAR MIAMI 1446. His energy — for Miami, coffee, art and travel — was on full display and infectious.
Would you say Miami Art Week is one of your favorite times in the city?
Oh, yeah. All the people are here. All the people are showing a common interest in one thing and that’s art. You’re building so many relationships. You get to see so many fire pieces of art, some from people you didn’t even know, and you get to learn a lot. I think that’s what this life should be about anyways — learning.
And you can never know everything about art. You can never know every single artist, but you can learn a lot from what each artist does and their style. And I’m glad to be able to be home this entire week with basketball games. Hopefully, we get to win those, too.
Zooming in on this DAR Miami 1446 experience, how has this been a unique evening for you?
It is fun. I’m thankful for Capital One having me here. The first thing that I sat down and talked to Hassan about was my trip to Morocco in 2018. As I’m looking at the individuals on the wall, there was one where I was like, “Oh, that must be the square that’s right around the corner from that Four Seasons.” He was like, “Yeah, it is. This is the henna artist.” And I was like, “Oh my God. I might’ve just saw her the last time I was there.” And that just goes to show the reason that I travel is to be able to be a little bit relatable.
The food that we had [at the DAR Miami 1446 event] was off the charts and I like the fact that I got to use my hands. It made me feel like I was a kid here and just the way that they made this feel like you are at home.
You mentioned enjoying Morocco. What are some of your other favorite destinations or trips in recent memory?
I’ve been a little bit of everywhere. I’ve got to say any place in South America that I get to do coffee at a high level, I just love it. And how they do football, or soccer, at a high level. Europe is great. Africa, phenomenal. There’s just so many places.
But no matter where I go, I’m just so grateful to be able to experience these cultures and these wonderful people and learn, pay attention, ask the questions, experience it all. Because I now realize that America, the United States, is not the only place on this globe.
You’re a pretty big coffee lover. What really gets you excited in the coffee space these days?
There’s just so much going on. You can never know enough. There’s so many different types of coffee, cappuccino, long black espresso, latte. You name it. And it’s like art. To sit down and learn about it, talk to people about it, learn what they all got in common, how you can relate to it, it’s all fun.
As with everything in this world, you can relate to coffee if you want to, you can relate to art. You just have to want to do it. So, I just think the one thing that draws me to coffee is there’s just so much of it. There’s so many different types and you’ve always got an opportunity to learn.
Tell me about your travel essentials. What are the musts?
Well, I travel the majority of the time with a full-blown expresso machine. It’s a Linea Mini from La Marzocco. I travel with my own barista and coffee beans. I definitely travel with a soccer ball. I think I got some earrings here and there. But more than anything, I travel with my people. I want my people to be able to experience everything that I get the opportunity to experience.
And I travel with an open mind. I think that’s the most important thing. You got to be able to step into somebody else’s shoes. You got to be able to be able to relate and then you got to be able to accept who they are and how they do things.
If you had to pick a bucket-list destination you haven’t been to, where is No. 1 for you?
Numero uno is the Czech Republic. I just know that it is so peaceful. It’s very kid-friendly. I know their schooling system is near the top of the list. I want to go and see how the kids are there, take my kids and see them get to play with other kids and experience that culture. I think that’d be special.
Let’s bring it back home. What is it about your city that keeps you excited to call it home?
There’s so many reasons. You can talk about the weather. You can talk about the fans of all sports. You can talk about the multiple different types of people here. You can talk about the number of dominoes that they play. But more than anything, what I will say is I love fútbol and I’m starting to really think that I’m good at it — and I’m not. The love for soccer here is unmatched more than anything.
My first coffee shop is opening up here, too, so that’s going to always bring me back here.
