CA native’s dream of an espresso bar takes off in Middle GA. Spoiler: It’s mobile

California native Sophia Gargicevich-Almeida started dreaming about owning a coffee shop a decade ago.

But life would take some twists and turns before the California native ended up in Middle Georgia to realize her dream via Little Light Coffee Co., a mobile espresso bar.

“I’m basically just able to bring the coffee shop experience to different events,” Gargicevich-Almeida said. “It combines the best of both good coffee and also being able to create a space for community where people can kind of have something to talk over and meet over.”

In only three months, Gargicevich-Almeida has set up shop at farmer’s markets, a golf clinic, Food Truck Fridays, a pickleball tournament, school and business appreciation functions, neighborhood pop-ups and other events. Her calendar includes weddings in the fall.

“It’s just kind of hit the ground running and been beyond what I would ever imagined,” Gargicevich-Almeida said. “I’m grateful — just riding the wave and trying to keep it going.”

Her first event was the Open Air Health Fair in Perry on March 6.

For National Doughnut Day on June 4, Gargicevich-Almeida is teaming up with Ashley James, the owner of Mini Dixie Donuts. The popular shop opened up at 4027 Watson Blvd. in Warner Robins in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is from 6:30 a.m to 1 p.m. at Mini Dixie Donuts.

“She’s very much like epitomizing the whole art of ... when you’ve achieved, when you’ve gone there .. reach back and help the next person out, and that’s like her MO 1000%,” Gargicevich-Almeida said.

What to expect

Walk up to Little Light Coffee Co. and “You can easily find almost anything you’d find in a nice coffee shop,” Gargicevich-Almeida said.

“We have latte, Americano, cappuccino, mocha, white mocha. We usually have cold brew, chai latte, hot chocolate and then London Fog. In a nutshell, it’s espresso-based drinks, with a couple other options.”

She offers both caffeinated and decaf, premium flavored syrups, including chocolate, white chocolate, vanilla, hazelnut and lavender, and whole milk along with milk substitutes of oat, soy and almond. The vanilla syrup is sugar free and Splenda is available as an alternative sweetener.

“A lot of times, I’ll just have people come up to me and be like, ‘I want something really sweet and I can’t have regular milk,’ and I’ll say, ‘Perfect, we can do A,B,C,’ “ Gargicevich-Almeida said. “Then, other times, someone will come up to me and say they drink their coffee black in the morning, what’s the closest thing they can get and maybe add a splash of milk to it or half-and-half.

“It’s kind of nice because you have the opportunity to serve people both in ways that they are familiar with so if they know their order, they can get it, or you get the opportunity to be creative and educate people and help them learn what they like.”

Where dreams begin

When Gargicevich-Almeida was in college, she played softball.

An athlete, she said she’d always found solace in softball. But one year when she hit a rough patch in life, part of what wasn’t going well for her was in her sport.

“So, I started exploring coffee shops and that really kind of helped me get through because I felt like I got that sense of community but at the same time, I could be alone,” she said. “For me, I know it sounds cliche, but it was really like a light at the end of the tunnel.”

From that experience, Gargicevich-Almeida said she knew she wanted to own a coffee shop some day.

“Fast forward a couple of years, I was driving and I actually heard a song come on and it was kind of one of those moments.”

She loved the acoustics and immediately looked to see what the song was called: “Little Light.” She knew instantly, “That’s it. That’s the name of the shop: Little Light Coffee Co.”

Puzzle Pieces

After graduating from Georgetown University in 2015, Gargicevich-Almeida played softball abroad in Sweden for a summer.

Because living in New York was on her bucket list and she didn’t know what she wanted to do for a career, she next got a job in New York and lived there for about 18 months.

She returned to California in 2017, working in project management at Callaway Golf. She also earned an online master’s degree in project management.

By late 2019, she was in a long-distance relationship, which ultimately would lead her to Middle Georgia.

In April, right after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she was laid off.

“That’s kind of what kicked the process of having to make the decision of moving or not,” she said. “I worked remotely a little on and off where I could and then decided it’s just time to go for it.”

She and her boyfriend, who’s military, moved to Perry last fall.

The seed for a mobile espresso bar had already been planted in seeing their popularity in San Diego, plus it’s “very expensive to open brick and mortar,” Gargicevich-Almeida said.

“It made sense just to go mobile,” she said.

To this day, coffee shops still provide “kind of a getaway” for Gargicevich-Almeida.

“Even now, I’ll still do it sometimes — like if I’m having like just really a day of it, I’ll just go, sit down, bring a book or just bring my computer or something and just kind of be able to be in community with other people. But like, I don’t really have to participate if I don’t want to. It’s a good combination.”

People in Middle Georgia have been “extremely kind, welcoming and supportive” of her business, she said.

“It’s been really cool to see it just kind of turn into something more than I would have imagined at this point, like so soon ... It ended up being one of those weird things when you look back, oh, all these puzzle pieces fit together perfectly. But at the time, I had no clue— just kind of laying the brick one by one to make it what it is now.”