We were lucky to catch up with Drastiko Rodriguez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Drastiko, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
So it started with my 1994 cadillac Deville I was rebuilding slowly. In 2021 I attended a trucks and coffee HTX with my older brother who at the time was driving a 73 c10 truck. When I got there I seen how the community was it was amazing seeing all the trucks of all years together at one location and people were enjoying the rides and networking. That’s when it sparked for me I mentioned to my older brother that I wanted to start something for the cadillac community in houston with a purpose. I was truly inspired by creating something where we could hang out with other cadillac enthusiasts and share info on the cars mechanical issues that was the idea at first haha. I went home I was sketching out a logo send it off to get brought to life by an art designer and in about a week I had it in my hands. I started a group on Facebook and opened up an Instagram page for Cadillacs and coffee houston. I created a flyer for the first meet that would take place downtown houston at the graffiti wall on Leeland st that’s no longer there. Meanwhile i was in search of all cadillac owners online to send a personal invite to attend. The day came only 5 cars total showed up but man we enjoyed meeting these guys and enjoyed talking about the cars. The following monthly meet up was cancelled due to me having issues with my vehicle I couldn’t drive it, it needed work. Months went by and December came fast and I thought about pushing a toy drive and have all the cadillac owners come out and bring a toy to donate. Well this was the second meet in 2022 and I was amazed 50 Cadillacs of all years showed up this time to the same place I mentioned earlier. We had an amazing turn out and everyone loved it, it was something different for houston it was a vibe. Soon after that I knew there was potential for a lot of things with this movement so I had to quickly get organized. I hosted monthly events for 3 years straight working, networking with local business owners and inviting people to my events. The name blew up in houston my Instagram account started to flourish organically the numbers were growing quickly for the amount of time I had put in and im just starting. I was planting seeds with many different businesses and building relationships with people because I knew if it was built on Love it couldn’t get ignored. In 2023 my life changed I went away for a few months everything stopped I had lost my fiance,my mother and prior to that in 2021 my father. I was devastated by the all the losses. I started going to church because I was walking with pain in my heart and weight on my shoulders that nobody could help me with but God. I gave my life to Christ in 2023 a lot of blessings came into my life after i reconnected with my first love from back when I was a teen. In 2024 i followed Gods instructions and I got married I learned so many things about my self, life, and God. I was a changed man walking with Christ and I wanted to use my platform for direct people back to Christ. In 2025 I made the transition fully within the movement for Christ only I started to put in work for him. fast forward it’s 2026 and this year I wanted to do things different and no longer hosting monthly but quarterly only 4 events this year. We just hosted March 21 “the First Quarter” and it was an amazing turn out we had over 60 Cadillacs, faith based local vendors, 250 plus attendees and all Christian hiphop artist performing. Had a army of prayer warriors praying over people attending it was a beautiful Saturday morning. Can’t wait for the second quarter June 13 its our 4 year anniversary for Cadillacs and coffee houston. I will continue to serve Christ with my movement being a fisher of men for him with the blessing he has given me.
Drastiko, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
With my business I started to think outside the box I’ve always been a creative mind. I wanted to create things that people haven’t created before and be unique. I created our own coffee since it’s Cadillacs and coffee houston the name. We put our own twist to a traditional Mexican recipe “Cafe de Olla” we brought it to life have it available in bottles at our events and the people love it. It’s iced cafe de Olla it’s amazing. Later we partnered up with a local ice cream business owner by the name of Popston and brought out a coffee ice cream with our same touch we sold out. C&CH was its own tire shine line we created as well it’s a brown liquid “coffee look” and it’s coffee scented to when you spray it on your tires you get that deep gloss but amazing coffee scent. You have to check our product out yourself and our other merch. Most important thing for me is to help those in need Cadillacs and coffee houston is a community and we help out houston community. From doing feedings for the less fortunate, toy drives, back to school drives, even helping those in need by assisting on benefits to raise funds for their loved ones. We make all these things possible by coming together and partnering up with other organizations like God chasers HTX and others. Thank God for allowing us to do these things for our brothers and sisters it’s a blessing.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Keep searching for different ways to market what ever it is your doing. Dont stop working post schedule post so it helps you with managing time. Respond to direct messages, reach out to people individually it takes time but it’s worth it. Tell people about what you do in person and online and keep pushing your promo. Wear your brand you are a walking billboard.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
So Cadillacs and coffee houston was my passion but it turned into my side hustle and still is. When I started to see the support we had from houston I knew the people would support our merch. When I seen our social media presence blow up I knew they loved it. When I did a video on my own of a cadillac for sale for a dealership and it sold I knew we carried value. From where I started to now we have passed many milestones I never thought this would be my business I wouldn’t have thought this would work for me. But I was consistent and dedicated and working hard to build this from the pavement.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cadillacsandcoffeehouston.bigcartel.com/
- Instagram: @Cadillacsandcoffeehouston
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18XhctT31o/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@cadillacsandcoffeehouston?si=VkVPNtwe1gqdWciE
Image Credits
Photographs taken by @Autofocus.713
@_Astrokind