Coming Soon: Happy Joe Coffee to Open Its First Arizona Location

A trendy Los Angeles coffee shop best known for its celebrity clientele and CBD-infused coffee plans to open its first Arizona location inside one of the chicest buildings on the Arizona State University campus.

Happy Joe Coffee first debuted in North Hollywood in 2014 and was one of the first coffee shops to serve CBD-infused coffee, starting in 2017. The Arizona location will be inside a new, 30-story student housing building at 213 East Seventh Street on the ASU campus.

The new coffee shop is scheduled to open on March 11. Construction is slated to begin this week.

Joe Yarbrough, who owns Happy Joe with his wife, Breanne, said the new digs were a no-brainer. The building will include 300 apartments for students (though not through ASU), many of whom will be looking for an early morning boost before heading to class.

“ASU is a great place to start the next cool thing,” Joe said. “Especially in a brand-new building that’s densely populated. It’s second to none.”

Bre said it was a natural progression from L.A. to the Valley.

“[Phoenix is] similar to L.A., so it was a natural movement to the Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale area,” Bre said. “We noticed it was an underserved market. “We couldn’t find anything we liked here that had that L.A. flavor.”

The Happy Joe vibe should fit nicely on the college scene. Shops are adorned with vibrant artwork like pop culture-related chalk murals with subjects ranging from Game of Thrones to the Wu-Tang Clan. The black-and-white graffiti is done in black Magic Marker and chalk, a Happy Joe signature, and many of the displays have gone viral. Yarbrough says the same artists who provided the designs for the North Hollywood shop will also beautify the walls in Tempe.

“Generation Z is way more open, and more than likely, they’re already users [of CBD],” said Joe.

Happy Joe’s secret is they infuse the whole bean with CBD,” Joe said. The result is a genuinely water-soluble solution that’s odorless and tasteless – with no earthy aftertaste or oily residue floating on top of your beverage.

“Even top places like [Alfred Coffee on Melrose Place in L.A.] use a dropper to add on the CBD, and it’s a much inferior product,” Joe said.

CBD is a hemp product, not a cannabis product, widely used as an anti-inflammatory, Yarbrough said. Surprisingly, a stigma still exists, even in the 21st Century and in a state that passed recreational marijuana in 2020.

“Our nano-emulsified CBD is derived 100 percent from regeneratively grown organic hemp,” according to the Happy Joe website. “No synthetic or harmful solvents are used in the extraction process. Each batch is third-party lab-tested to ensure a consistent and effective CBD, with high rates of absorption.”

But Happy Joe’s will be a coffee shop first and foremost, said Bre. Flavored cold brews – vanilla bean, chocolate, and coconut – are sure to be customer favorites, and teas, lattes, and a rotating seasonal menu will provide new options consistently.

Along with opening their first shop here, the Yarbroughs have relocated their headquarters to the Valley.

“With the climate in California, we thought it was time to get out of L.A.,” Bre said.

Plans are also in the works for a second campus location and other locations in Arizona.

“We’re actively looking,” he said. “We hope to have three shops open in the next three to five years.”

For those who can’t wait until the Tempe store’s opening in March, retail products are available through Happy Joe’s website and “about 30 different shops around,” Joe said. Best-selling products include CBD-infused K-Cups for a Keurig machine, whole beans, and a single-serve pour-over – each with 20mg of CBD per serving. Bags of whole beans come with CBD or without. The Just Coffee line has no CBD and comes in three flavors: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Signature Blend, and decaf.