HOME | Green Bus Cafe

100% vegan, gluten-free and made with love. Our lattes come standard with oatly oat milk. We pay premium prices for ethically sourced coffee seeds from MORU Coffee Roasters and their direct partnership with sustainable coffee farmers around the world. Our hand-bagged Colorado tea's are 100% organic and contain whole ingredients from Black Sheep Teas. We do our best to use solely organic and fair trade ingredients. And we craft products that are better for your taste buds, your body, the producers, and the environment :)

The Story

A man and his bus

Hi, my names Dustin. I’m the owner, operator and founder of the “Green Bus Café”. The story of the Green Bus emerged from a dream to start a food truck from a bit of an untraditional approach to mobile food. From the beginning I wanted to create a business that was environmentally sustainable and health conscious. Ever since I was a young teen, I’ve been obsessed with the 1960’s and 70’s era. From the clothes to the music and of course those sweet, sweet Volkswagen Buses! As I gave this passion more thought, I began to connect the dots. What if I had a “food bus” instead of a food truck?! One challenge is the size. VW Buses are quite small compared to the large step trucks used for mobile food. More influences came into play, like my love for exploring new coffee shops wherever I traveled. I romanticized the idea of working at a local café as a Barista and how interesting and social that lifestyle must be. Then it struck me, maybe I should open up my own café out of an old VW Bus! I found the Green Bus (before it got its name) in Raleigh, NC after looking for months online for the perfect one. I flew out there for one night and became the new proud owner! A few weeks later, the bus was delivered and it was time to get started. For years I had been hooked on the vanlife phenomena circling the internet. So when it came time to fabricate the bus into a mobile café, I decided I wanted to take a DIY approach to the project and "vanlife" the whole thing. Doing everything myself if at all possible because I was starting this business almost entirely from my savings. I learned SO much along the way. Like how to lay wood flooring, 27 ways how NOT to do a plumbing job AND how to replace an accelerator cable that snapped at 70mph on the highway! This process has been one of the most amazing, humbling and brutal experiences of my life. I have truly put my blood, sweat and tears into this business on multiple occasions. And at the end of the day I couldn’t be more proud of the final product. I present to you, Green Bus Café.

About

Catering & Events

Every event could use a latte

Retroactive 1970's nostalgia at any event. The Green Bus Café can be the refreshing halftime your guests need. Not to mention a great talking piece! Whether it’s a staff appreciation, live music venue, birthday party, or your wedding day, the green bus is here to add excitement to your event. We offer superfood lattes, specialty grade coffee, healthy and delicious baked goods, along with an array of pressed vegan sandwiches. Our menu is available to be changed based on your specific needs. Just need coffee? No problem. Breakfast for a crowd? We’ve got you! We source our ingredients from businesses we’ve researched and trust. Mostly organic, always 100% plant-based and gluten-free. Please send us an inquiry in the contact section below or email us with any questions and details about your event. We look forward to rolling with you soon!

Events

“There is nothing better than a friend,

except for a friend with coffee.”

Our Home

We can make a difference and it's our responsibility to do so

At Green Bus Café we believe in a world where business owners work hard to do the right thing, for their customers and for the planet. It’s my philosophy that food providers have an ethical responsibility to give consumers honest information, quality food and work in accordance with nature. The goal isn’t to be perfect or be the best, it’s to be the best that we can be. I know an old Volkswagen isn’t the most carbon friendly road-warrior. But there is something to be said about repurposing an old vehicle to perform a new task. Green Bus Café will always use compostable cups and food-ware containers. We have a compost bin on board the bus to compost our coffee and milk waste, that will later get turned into soil. And we try to keep a compost bin outside for your compostable cups as well. We also recycle all of the plant milk cartons we use. Our next big step in the direction of sustainability is to convert the cafe to run entirely off of battery and solar power. The engine would still use gas of course, but the alternator would charge the batteries to operate all the the equipment, like the espresso machine while we are driving. And we'll get some additional trickle charge from the solar panels on the roof too. This way we are maximizing our energy and minimizing our waste. For a better environment and a better tomorrow <3

Our Home

The Health

side of things

the good the bad the tasty

“Healthy”. What an interesting word with many different interpretations. This word holds both individual, ideological, political, religious and corporate-bias connotations. Well, what is healthy? This is honestly a question I’ve wrestled with a lot, especially starting a food and beverage business that I wanted to be more health centric. The dictionary defines it as: indicative of, conducive to, or promoting good health. I like to think the green bus embodies that definition quite well. The food and drinks we serve from the Green Bus Café will be as minimally processed and use as few ingredients as possible. We will always try our best to source organic ingredients and you can rest assured that we will do our homework before we use any ingredients in our food and beverages. We believe that diets can vary widely between humans, but that a predominantly plant-based diet is ideal for most people. We also believe that wheat, particularly grown in the U.S. is not easily digestible. We don’t think consuming wheat often is a particularly good health move, so we are choosing to stay away from wheat and gluten containing products. Likewise, dairy milk, that you'll find standard in most cafe's is not only bad for animals and the environment, but it is pretty awful for people too. You wouldn't want to drink your moms milk and you certainly shouldn't want to drink another moms milk, especially from a different species. The other major thing we find important around health is transparency. We want you to know as much about what you’re putting in your body as you feel important to know. That is why we plan to list all the ingredients we use often on our menu. If there is anything you have further questions about feel free to ask us at the bus or in the contact form below. We are always happy to answer those questions!