There's trouble brewing between The Pinecrest Bakery and Starbucks over who's allowed to be brewing coffee, and the little guy is steamed at the big guy.
Walk into the bakery at 12101 S. Dixie Highway and you can't miss the signs, asking customers to get involved in the social media battle against Starbucks.
"Let us live, let us move forward and just do what we do, we're nothing compared to Starbucks," owner Efrain Valdes said.
Valdes was asked if he felt he was being bullied by Starbucks.
"I think we are, I definitely feel we are," he said.
Valdes says Starbucks and the property manager won't let him sell Cuban coffee, which is a killer because most people who buy a Cuban pastry need a shot of Cafe Cubano with it.
"We can only sell American-based coffee and quite frankly we're losing clientele by the ton, a lot of people aren't coming back anymore and we're basically thinking we're probably gonna have to close this location due to that situation," Valdes said.
Local
Cuban coffee is still on the menu, but not offered, because the fine print on the second lease Valdes signed, after he had already started his business, spelled out no espresso drinks, to appease Starbucks, which was there first.
Starbucks issued a statement saying that they are trying to "quickly resolve any misunderstanding, with the goal of all parties resuming their beverage business as usual."
"It's totally unfair, because if you run a business you can sell the product you wish to offer, so it's totally unfair," customer Grace Betancourt said.
"Right now I feel like they're the 10,000-pound giant and there's nothing we can do about it," Valdes said.
