Four years ago, finance marketer MacKenzie Logan was seeking a new line of work, having grown uninterested in the work-from-home life. Meanwhile, a mutual friend wanted someone to open a coffee business in a building they owned on Hampton Beach.
Logan says “it just sort of was very serendipitous,” leading her to launch Flamingos Coffee Bar, a coffee shop urging its customers to “party like a flock star.” Today, the bar has an additional location in Exeter, a catered coffee cart for events and popular T-shirts touting the brand as “disgustingly pro-women,” which has attracted buyers from all 50 states.
That wording came from a two-star review of the business in September 2024, with the reviewer calling Flamingos unwelcoming to male customers and criticizing its pink theme as a rip-off of Marylou’s, a coffee chain in Massachusetts’ South Shore region. Rather than letting it get into her head, Logan turned the critique into a form of feminine empowerment.
“The disgusting pro-women movement has been phenomenal to witness,” Logan says. “The community rallied behind that sentiment, which started as a joke on our end of taking this negative review and making fun of it. We got literally thousands of messages the week we had the idea of the T-shirt with people sharing their experiences of sexist remarks.”
The merch has been more than marketing for Flamingos. The business donates 20% of each clothing sale to Exeter Area Womenade, a volunteer-run chapter (which Logan serves on) of a nationwide nonprofit organization helping to fund local families experiencing short-term crises.
Flamingos also partners with the LGBTQ+ youth nonprofit Seacoast Outright each June, the youth suicide prevention organization Connor’s Climb in September and YMCA Camp Lincoln, supporting its annual Paddle Plunge event.
While the tariffs imposed on South American nations by the Trump administration are a challenge for small coffee shops, Logan says she and her team are trying to avoid shifting significant cost increases to customers. Still, she’s optimistic about the possibility of opening a third Flamingos location. “Having a space where we can build community, have people show up and have fun together has been a really cool thing to watch grow,” Logan says.
