Popular St. Augustine gourmet coffee, wine shop expanding to Jacksonville's Town Center

John and Julie Jacobson hope to ace their newest venture.

The husband and wife tennis pros-turned-entrepreneurs are preparing to open their third DOS Coffee & Wine shop at 4853 Big Island Drive, No. 3, in Town Center Plaza adjacent to St. Johns Town Center. DOS Coffee & Wine will share a 1,578-square-foot storefront with Mayday Ice Cream.

DOS Coffee is in the final inspection process. The couple hopes to open by the end of the month, but the date hasn't been finalized, John Jacobson said.

Mayday Ice Cream expects to have a soft opening this Saturday. A joint grand opening with DOS Coffee will be held later but hasn't been scheduled, a representative told the Times-Union. The new ice cream shop will be the locally owned brand's seventh location in the Jacksonville area.

Based in St. Augustine, DOS Coffee & Wine offers fresh specialty coffee from the couple's own roastery along with a diverse selection of wine and beer. The food menu features made-to-order sandwiches and salads as well as in-house baked pastries and other desserts.

The Town Center Plaza opening comes about four months after the Jacobsons opened their second DOS Coffee & Wine cafe in St. Augustine.

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Fresh brew makes for a popular business

High-quality, freshly roasted coffee is the heart and soul of DOS Coffee & Wine.

"It's roasting and serving and making great coffee accessible to people," Jacobson said. We just try to source the best coffee we can and do a good job roasting and serving it."

In addition to hot and cold-brewed coffees, cappuccinos, espresso and a variety of other coffee drinks, DOS Coffee & Wine features a selection of teas and specialty beverages such as Italian sodas.

Their roastery — Relampago Coffee Lab & Roasting — offers a variety of freshly roasted beans for home brewing. Bags of Relampago blends also are available.

The new Town Center Plaza location is the first DOS Coffee & Wine outside of St. Johns County. It joins the original coffee shop at 300 San Marco Ave., the second at 2375 Florida 16 and Relampago at 74 Spanish St. — all in St. Augustine.

"It was just realizing that we’d love to have another outlet for our coffees," Jacobson said. "And we’re to the point too where we have staff members who’ve been with us for a while and we really would like to be able to create positions to help better provide for them and their families."

In addition, he said, "We’d just like to be able to pay more money to our team.”

'Scratching our own itch'

DOS Coffee & Wine dates back to 2013 when then the couple who share a “passion for coffee and wine” came across a former auto parts store in St. Augustine.

"I think it was the familiar story of just kind of scratching your own itch," Jacobson said of their inspiration to open the coffee and wine bar. "We wanted to create a space that we would like to go to. And once you go into the coffee rabbit hole, your tastes evolve."

At that time Julie Jacobson was working as a tennis pro but was ready for a change. Although John continues coaching tennis, he also was ready to go into a new business.

"In my free time, I learned how to roast coffee, got my grading certification" and have "been just devouring information on it" since we first got into the business, he said.

Julie focused on developing the wine bar side of the business. The couple both were excited by the prospect of learning about wine and coffee and then sharing what they've learned with others. As connoisseurs, it was only natural they opened a business focused on those passions, John said.

"She has a great palate for [wine] and she loves bringing in wines that she thinks people are going to enjoy," he said. As the wine industry has evolved over the years, she has researched and developed a selection of vintages intended to please a wide range of guests, Jacobson said of his wife.

As a result, the couple renovated an old auto supply building at 300 San Marco Ave. on the north end of St. Augustine, transforming it into what they affectionately call "the mother ship." It's where they bake the pastries and roast the coffee beans.

They also established Relampago in downtown St. Augustine. It offers a variety of coffee such as Ethiopian Kossa Geshe, Lightning Piglet and Nutty Chocolate.

Freshly brewed coffee and hand-crafted food

DOS not only roasts its own coffee beans, but all its baked goods, salads and sandwiches are made in-house.

Their house-blend coffee drinks are the most popular, Jacobson said.

"We have our house espresso blend that tried to bridge the gap between modern and traditional. People tend to think it has quite a lot of flavor and is different from everybody else out there," he said, noting they bring in "some really nice auction lots, high scoring lots and prettier lots of coffees."

Among their most popular drinks are a Honey Lavender Latte and a house-made mocha. They also are formulating some new drinks, he said.

Other beverages include hot chocolate, chai latte, loose leaf teas, kombucha and Italian sodas, the menu shows.

Sandwich fare

Signature sandwiches include the San John with turkey, Swiss cheese and pesto, XXX BLT with prosciutto, Provolone cheese tomato and Romaine lettuce, The Purist featuring cucumber, hummus, Feta cheese, tomatoes and greens and the Supple Leopard, which is turkey, pear, Brie cheese and preserves.

Among the salad offerings is the Trapeze Artist, which is mixed greens, Feta, cucumber, pickled onions, tomato, pepitas and a citrus champagne vinaigrette.

Ezekiel Toast — both plain and cinnamon raisin — along with bagels, Greek yogurt, protein bars and a rotating variety of baked goods are among the breakfast items.

Jacobson said the Town Center Plaza location will be "a little more of a natural wine bottle shop." They'll probably have about 30 different wines available, he said.

Opening hours for DOS or Mayday Ice Cream haven't been announced as yet. The two new businesses are next door to AMARA Med Spa: Town Center and Modani Furniture at the retail center.

Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on Twitter @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at tstepzinski@jacksonville.com.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: St. Augustine's DOS Coffee & Wine expanding to Jacksonville