Business Is Booming for Coffee Cart Owner

In mid-1998, Kelly Jeffrey’s world was in turmoil as she fought to keep her tiny business alive. Managers at the UCI Medical Center in Orange had notified her that her gourmet coffee cart was no longer welcome and that she was being evicted.

But Jeffrey fought back, saying she was being unfairly ousted by managers bowing to pressure from a giant food vendor.

And she won.

These days, the relationship between the medical center and Jeffrey’s Divi Espresso Corp. is in great shape, she says.

She and her husband, Alan, who has joined her in the business, have a year left on their contract with the center and a new three-year pact has been promised, she said. The coffee cart has become a full-fledged espresso bar with four employees, business has tripled, and the Kellys are about to open a second location at the county’s juvenile justice center near UCI Medical Center in Orange.

In addition, Jeffrey says, her husband has developed a coffee drink mix that is getting its first exposure outside of the espresso bar--Jeffrey’s father, a retired Texas businessman, has begun selling it to convenience stores in the Dallas area.

The couple have started a separate company, Miss Kelly’s Corp., to produce and market the drink mix and are planning to launch California sales soon, she said.