At Pour Boy Coffee on Savannah's south side, even the drinks tell exciting stories

The summer blockbuster movie scene is in full swing, and sequels such as “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and "Inside Out 2” are making big bucks at the box office. I, however, am saving my movie-going dollars for something a little bit different. No disrespect to those films, but the movie I’m most looking forward to is “Curse of the Caramel Knight.”

Starring an ensemble cast that includes Pour Boy, Lily Latte, Barista Bella Rosie, Detective Espresso, Jim Bean, and Chief Crema, the tagline promises, “A scary sweet tale to make you melt…with fear!”

I can’t wait.

At this point you’re probably wondering, ‘What the heck are you going on about?’ That’s fair.

Actually, no such movie exists, at least not in reality. But in the mind of Pour Boy Coffee barista-owner and artist Keith Baudry Smith, who created a poster for the fictional film to hang from the walls of his brick-and-mortar on Waters Avenue, it’s as much of a real thing as any Will Smith or Pixar production.

“I’d had [a mobile coffee trailer] for a year, and in that I’d come up with all these ideas of how to brand it, and what it was, and what it was supposed to look like, and how people were supposed to interact with that brand,” Smith explained of the aesthetic of the shop. “In my mind, it had fallen into this realm of being this fictional, alternative history thing.”

“A retro futuristic post-apocalyptic opera house theater cafe”

The exterior of Pour Boy gives only the faintest hint as to what visitors will experience once inside: The lettering on the marquee has a classic “Popeye” feel to it; and the open sign is surrounded in old-timey Edison-style lightbulbs. Otherwise, it’s just another store in a strip mall that features a few independent retailers, including an adult "novelty" shop.

But stepping inside is like going back in time to a place that never existed, yet feels familiar. Smith described it as “a retro-futuristic-post-apocalyptic-opera-house-theater cafe.”

“I want it to feel a little bit overgrown. I want it to feel kind of blown out, a bit magical, a bit strange,” he continued, pointing out various features, such as the the long dark wooden bar, velvet curtains, old lamps, and fake plants emerging from various ceiling tiles in the space. There’s even a throw rug with the pattern most famously seen at the Overlook Hotel in the classic film, "The Shining."

“I want to give that vibe that you’re stepping into a theater, of sorts.”

There’s also a ton of artwork that the owner has created, like the aforementioned poster for “Curse of the Caramel Knight.” A second faux movie advertisement hangs on the wall near the first, this one for “The Harrowing Tales of the Nitro Necromancer,” and next to that is a huge piece showcasing dozens and dozens of iterations of the shop’s namesake, Pour Boy. On the opposite wall are a set of shelves featuring branded items with yet more characters. The menu, too, reinforces the theme, with drawings of expressive, Mickey Mouse-style gloves pointing around at highlighted drinks and drink options.

Traditional concoctions with a contemporary twist

Inspiration for the artistic direction of the Pour Boy Universe comes mostly from the distant past, from cartoons such as Felix the Cat and Betty Boop, which are in the public domain and, therefore, free to use by artists like Smith.  For the café, he fuses that imagery with the kinds of things you might find in some of the more evocative modern-day video game worlds, like those depicted in Bioshock and Fallout, a kind of steampunk future that never was.

Those aren’t the only influences on the space, however: It also has roots in Smith’s numerous past creative endeavors. Prior to opening Pour Boy as a mobile coffee shop back in January 2023, he’d done graveyard ghost tours, self-published several comics, and put together a gothic horror anthology, amongst other things.

He'd also spent three years working with Greg Spano and the crew over at Cup to Cup Coffee Roasters, where he learned, as he described it, “traditional coffee” and “the way somebody would win an award at a barista competition.” That training insured that his offerings at Pour Boy would actually taste good, and not just have cool branding, and he still gets his beans from them for his own shop.

Smith’s style of coffee goes beyond your everyday cappuccinos and lattes, however, into a place where Smith feels he can truly express his talents.

"I always felt like I was caged,” he explained of his previous experiences. “There’s so much fun you can have with it.”

So while you can still get traditional coffee creations, he’s also got unique concoctions such as a drink called “Koko’s Ghost,” where he’s mixing English breakfast tea with espresso, and  “Popeye” (which I’ve now had twice), which adds bitters to shaken iced espresso and cold brew. They might sound funky, but they both taste amazing.

Coffee with a double shot of art

With everything Smith does, however, there’s always the art: Koko’s Ghost references the spectral version of Koko the Clown from the 1933 Betty Boop short film version of “Snow White;” while Popeye references, well, the character Popeye. Even his many in-shop events reinforce the theme, including a book club that explores fitting titles, and a weekly Dungeons & Dragons group that plays in a setting based on the Pour Boy Universe.

It’s all part of the plan for the man who is part visual artist and part barista. And based on the crowds that are showing up to his shop in that little strip mall at the intersections of Waters and Stephenson avenues, it seems to be resonating with Savannahians.

“I know I’ve got great coffee, so I’m not worried about that part,” Smith said near the end of our conversation. “I just need to present it in a way that feels fresh and exciting and interesting and fun for people. And then they’ll want to come back over and over again.”

Pour Boy Coffee is located at 6608 Waters Ave. in Savannah, and is open Monday-Wednesday, 7 a.m. -7 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday, 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Closed Sunday. The Pour Boy Mobile Barista is available for events. Contact Smith via pourboycoffee.com for more information.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: the art and theater of pour boy's coffee savannah ga