Most Fly Coffee: Adding a Filipino-Inspired Coffee Shop to a Thriving Martial Arts Gym

Wayne Martin coaches martial arts at the gym he co-owns: Red Wolf Martial Arts in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Recently, he and business partner Mike Mendoza added something new. Most Fly Coffee Company is a Filipino-inspired coffee shop next door to the gym. A window connects the two businesses, so Red Wolf patrons (often parents watching their kids’ classes) can order coffee without having to leave the gym.

In this article, we break down how Wayne and Mike are building one community space out of two businesses.

Red Wolf Martial Arts

In order to understand Most Fly’s origin story, we need to backtrack to the business that came first: Red Wolf Martial Arts. 

Wayne is a former athlete, trainer, and professional fighter. Toward the end of the pandemic (an obviously difficult time for personal trainers), Wayne’s longtime friend Mike called him with the idea of opening a martial arts gym together. Fast forward three years: Red Wolf Martial Arts became so successful that it outgrew its original space. Mike and Wayne needed to find a bigger location.

It came through an unconventional partnership for a martial arts gym: a food court. The owners of the food court were ready to take their building in a new direction, and they needed an anchor business to drive foot traffic.

Red Wolf became that anchor. With 150 students at the time, half of them children, the gym could pull in 200 or more people on a typical training day. The owners tore down the original food hall, rebuilt it around the gym, and paid for the entire build-out. In the process, Wayne had the foresight to ask for a small space attached to the gym that they could turn into a coffee stall in the food court.

Here’s a video they shared of the build-out process that shows both sides of the coffee bar: 

A Most Fly Vision

Coffee had been a part of Wayne and Mike’s friendship from the start. They often met at coffee shops throughout their friendship and later as business partners. When it came to creating Most Fly Coffee Company, the concept was rooted in Wayne and Mike’s passions, backgrounds, and personalities. 

Both men were 80s babies who grew up on hip-hop culture. In addition, Mike wanted to bring in his Filipino roots into the menu. As community builders, both at Red Wolf and in life, a coffee shop offers another opportunity to bring people together.

Wayne and Mike had learned how to launch and run a business already, but Wayne wanted a more solid foundation on the coffee side. He attended Texas Coffee School’s 3-Day Coffee Business Master Class® to develop barista skills and learn how to open and operate a coffee shop that would thrive as much as his martial arts gym. 

Wayne returned from our class with our 300-page plus roadmap, including cost-of-goods spreadsheets, equipment recommendations, and the procedural framework for everything from cleaning the space to opening checklists. He frequently returns to all of these resources, but it’s the mindset he comes back to most frequently: 

“They said, ‘We’re not teaching you how to open up one coffee shop. We’re teaching you how to open up four,'” Wayne shared. “That’s been in my head the entire time.”

Now, Most Fly serves classic espresso drinks alongside Filipino-inspired flavors like ube and pandan. They have a stall in the food hall facing the public, and a window directly into Red Wolf for their martial arts patrons. 

The dual-business setup is a true hybrid coffee shop model. At Most Fly, students and parents access the coffee bar all day. New customers, especially students from the nearby university, discover the coffee shop inside the Power House Rock Hill food hall. After just a couple of months in business, the coffee shop side is covering all of its own expenses. Of course, that hasn’t come without some challenges.

Adapting to Challenges

Martial arts teaches discipline, focus, agility, and strength. That’s a good thing, since the Most Fly opening did not go entirely to plan. Wayne and Mike signed the lease for the new martial arts and coffee space before Wayne attended Texas Coffee School (where we cover lease negotiations, including critical provisions coffee shops need.) Missing from that lease: an exclusivity clause.

Shortly before opening, they got the news no business owner wants to hear: a second café was moving into the same food hall.

Wayne faced the hurdle without panicking. “With the confidence I had coming back from Texas Coffee School, I didn’t really feel the pressure,” he shared. “I know what we’re capable of.”

Wayne worked to differentiate Most Fly from the new competition. He leaned into Most Fly’s unique hip-hop based concept, signature Filipino menu offerings, exceptional, personalized customer service, community building, and creative marketing. Here’s how: 

• The Filipino menu features flavors no other shop in the area offers and offers a niche concept customers love, especially the Filipino Sweet Tea.
• They’ve added kids drinks to the menu (the Lucky Charm, the Peanut Butter Cup) to accommodate the many kids coming in and out of the gym.
• Most Fly is the only business in the food hall with a person out front (rather than an automated payment system), ready to greet customers and walk them through the menu. Wayne knew this personal human touch and customer experience would always give him a leg up over competitors.
• The hip hop culture and aesthetic of Most Fly are another key differentiating factor and conversation piece.
• As a hybrid model, Most Fly already has loyalty from the Red Wolf community.
• Wayne created Rock Hill Collective, a small committee of local businesses that hosts events together. Their first night market drove record-breaking sales for every business in the building. 
• Wayne markets and builds more community relationships with Winthrop University and residents of nearby off-campus housing by handing out flyers and offering loyalty incentives for students

The Future Vision

The coffee shop is just getting started, but Wayne is already planning what comes next. He is developing a breakfast menu, starting with simple items and expanding into heated options they will prepare in a rented commercial kitchen. The Rock Hill Collective is growing and will host more events. Most Fly is rolling bottled cold brew into nearby apartment housing. 

Longer term, they are eyeing their own building in order to continue scaling both the martial arts gym and the coffee business. 

Start Your Coffee Business with Texas Coffee School

Wayne approached challenges like any fighter would: with confidence and focus. That’s what allowed Most Fly to open strategically, even in the face of competition.

Attend the class that helped Wayne launch Most Fly Coffee Company. Sign up for our 3-Day Coffee Business Master Class®.