If you’re looking for a way to elevate your next event, Pour Mobile Coffee & Cocktails may be exactly what you need. Based in Birmingham, AL, Pour provides cocktails, coffee, and plenty of style for private events like weddings, parties, and corporate retreats. Here’s the scoop!
It all started with a “blind date” book club.
Owners Ashley Smith, Becki Dutton, and Rebecca Posey met at a book club in 2018. The three became fast friends and began hanging out outside their literary meetups.
One evening, while enjoying cocktails on Ashley’s back deck, the ladies looked at a vintage camper that Ashley’s husband owned and got an idea. “We said, ‘It’d be so fun if somebody could bring drinks to us in a little camper,” Becki recalls. And while the idea started as a joke, things soon got serious, and the three began shopping for a vintage camper of their own.
Meet Rebecca Posey, Ashley Smith, and Becki Dutton — the women behind Pour, a mobile beverage service based in Birmingham, Alabama, that could take your next event to the next level. Image: Southern Intrigue
In 2021, they launched Pour with a completely refurbished 1970 camper. Pour creates a custom menu for your event and provides service, drinkware, garnishes, ice, bar tools, and everything else needed for your beverage service — except alcohol. Due to Alabama liquor laws, you’ll need to provide the alcohol for your event’s cocktails. But Pour will help you with a detailed list of suggested spirits and quantities.
Ashley, Becki, and Rebecca believe Pour can take any event to the next level. “Everything is all about what’s Instagrammable these days, and our camper is a great picture backdrop and talking piece,” Rebecca says. “People get really excited about it.”
The cute camper isn’t the only way Pour stands out from other beverage services. “People are always blown away by our nice service,” Rebecca says.
The women also strive to offer top-notch products, making their simple syrup from scratch, using high-quality juices and mixers, and serving drinks in upscale disposable glasses to keep things classy.
You bring the alcohol, and Pour will bring everything else you need to make your event a hit. Image: Southern Intrigue
Meet Miss Midler
Once Ashley, Becki, and Rebecca got serious about starting a mobile beverage service, it was time to shop for a camper. They found one in Tennessee via Facebook Marketplace, but the camper needed a complete overhaul.
“Ashley’s husband went and got her, and the pieces of the skin on the camper — that’s what the outside aluminum is called — was flying off as he drove,” Becki shares. “A police officer literally stopped him and was like, ‘I don’t think this is road safe.’” But the camper, which Ashley, Becki, and Rebecca named Miss Midler, made her way to Alabama and got the makeover she needed.
Now, Miss Midler is the star of a host of local events along with Miss Fancy, Pour’s espresso machine. “Her name is Miss fancy because we’re constantly saying, ‘Here’s your one chance, Fancy. Don’t let us down,’” Rebecca shares with a laugh. “She’s very expensive and beautiful and high maintenance but very persnickety,” Becki adds. “I thought about naming our generator Louisa after the strong woman on Encanto because she’s our power horse.”
This is Miss Midler. At Pour events, this 1970 refurbished camper is the star of the show. Image: Deborah Michelle Photography
Giving Back
For coffee service, Pour partnered with Seeds Coffee. “They not only have some of the best coffee I’ve ever tasted in my life, but we really liked their process of getting and roasting the beans,” Rebecca says. “They’re just very serious about what they do. They also offered to train us on the coffee equipment.” Seeds Coffee prides itself on ethically sourcing its coffee beans. Furthermore, working with a local coffee company was paramount to the Pour team. “It’s important for us to give back locally, wherever we can,” Becki says.
They often donate leftover juices and other products to FeedBHM, a food rescue program of Grace Klein Community that takes unused food from local restaurants, grocers, and cafes and gives that food to those experiencing food insecurity in Birmingham.
Pour also offers coffee and hot chocolate service for private parties, companies, and community events. Image: Southern Intrigue
Busy Season
Last year, the Pour team decided to set up shop at Deck the Heights, an annual holiday shopping event held at Cahaba Heights in Vestavia Hills. Pour prepared about 15 gallons of hot chocolate for the event. “We sold out within an hour!” Becki shares. Since then, Miss Midler’s dance card has been packed with hot chocolate events. “December is one of our busiest months,” Becki says.
Near the end of the year, Pour is hired for Christmas parties and corporate holiday events. Homewood Middle School hired them for a teacher appreciation event. They’ve also worked a holiday event for the kids at United Ability, a local non-profit serving people with disabilities. Pour serves hot chocolate and various coffee drinks for these special holiday events. “We have different flavored lattes we can do — vanilla, salted caramel, regular caramel, mocha,” Becki says. “And sometimes we mix them together and make a Milky Way latte.”
Come the warmer weather, the Pour team hopes to be just as busy. “In summer, we do a great strawberry lemonade that people love,” Rebecca says. “And we did a cherry limeade once for an event. Everything is freshly squeezed. Farm to table is our motto.”
Many of the cocktails and other drinks that Pour provides are made with freshly squeezed juices. “Farm to table is our motto,” says Pour co-owner Rebecca Posey. Image: Southern Intrigue
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Ashley, Becki, and Rebecca are all mothers balancing their business with their full lives. Ashley, a mother of two, is a middle school English teacher. Rebecca, also a mother of two, is the director of a local preschool. And Becki is a busy stay-at-home mom with two sons.
Ashley serves as chief executive officer, Becki as chief financial officer, and Rebecca as chief operating officer. But if one person can’t get to a task on her to-do list for the day, she knows someone from the team will help her. For example, if Rebecca is too busy at her preschool to meet with a client, Becki can step in. “We do what we can when we can,” Becki says. “It’s been really nice to lean into each other.”
Being friends helps, too, she adds. By being involved in one another’s lives, they can work together to take care of business and stay on top of the business of life. “We share a Google Calendar,” Becki says. ‘So I know when Rebecca’s daughter has Taekwondo, and she knows when I have a doctor’s appointment.”
As the business has grown, the Pour team has also learned the importance of saying no. “When we first started, it was kind of like, ‘we’ve got to take whatever event comes our way,’” Rebecca says. “Now we know we need to turn some things down so that we can better balance with our family.”
Pour is still accepting bookings for 2023! Learn more at pourbirmingham.com.
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