Southern Girl Coffee Company

Southern Girl Coffee occupies a converted vintage trailer tucked along East Choccolocco Street in downtown Oxford, Alabama, parked behind a brick wall and shaded by an old tree that makes the spot easy to miss from the street and easy to fall for once found. What began as a back yard hobby grew into a full coffee company, built on the idea that a simple cup of coffee could do more than wake people up. It could bring a small community together around a walk-up window.

The trailer itself sets the tone. It is a compact, retro camper repainted in cream with the Southern Girl Coffee Co. logo lettered across the side in warm orange script, and it functions as the order window for the whole operation. A chalkboard menu sits out front listing the day’s drinks, and a scattering of potted plants and folding chairs give the small gravel lot a lived-in, welcoming feel rather than a drive-through-only setup.

Behind the trailer, a patio strung with string lights extends the space for anyone who wants to sit down rather than take a drink to go. Mismatched vintage sofas and cafe chairs face a brick building, and the lights come on as the sun sets over the trees behind the property, making the small courtyard a popular after-hours gathering spot as much as a morning coffee stop. It is the kind of outdoor seating area that turns a quick coffee run into a reason to linger.

The drink menu changes seasonally, and the shop has built a following around its rotating specialty lattes. Recent seasonal offerings have leaned into playful, distinctly Southern themes, including a peach bourbon caramel latte, a cornbread-flavored drink, and a blackberry honey variation, alongside the standard espresso drinks, drip coffee, and cold brew that keep regulars coming back on ordinary mornings. The shop roasts and bags its own beans for retail sale, branded with the same “Historic Oxford” mark that appears on its to-go cups and house mugs.

Beyond the walk-up window, Southern Girl Coffee runs a wholesale program that supplies its roasted beans to other local businesses, and it caters private events and weddings with a mobile espresso cart that brings the same menu off-site. The company describes its mission as impacting its team, its customers, and its community in a positive way through something as ordinary as a cup of coffee, and that community focus shows up in the events it hosts at the East Choccolocco Street location throughout the year.

Southern Girl Coffee keeps weekday hours from 6:30 in the morning until 5:30 in the evening, a longer stretch than most coffee shops, which makes it a viable stop for an afternoon pick-me-up and not just an early commute. Saturday hours run shorter, from 7:30 in the morning until 2:00 in the afternoon, and the shop is closed on Sundays. The location sits close to The Bank Oxford on the same stretch of downtown, making the corner of Main and Choccolocco a small but genuine walkable node for locally owned food and drink in Oxford.

For visitors passing through on the I-20 corridor or locals looking for something beyond the chain coffee options near Quintard Mall, Southern Girl Coffee offers a distinctly independent alternative, built out of a repurposed trailer rather than a standard storefront, and shaped by a family that wanted their coffee shop to feel like a backyard gathering rather than a transaction.

The shop’s small footprint has not stopped it from becoming a fixture of Oxford’s downtown identity. Locals stop by on foot from nearby offices and shops, cyclists use the patio as a rest stop on weekend rides, and the seasonal menu changes give regulars a reason to check in every few weeks rather than settling into a single standing order. It remains a family-run operation at heart, and that scale is part of what keeps the East Choccolocco Street location feeling personal rather than corporate.