Childhood dream comes true; Drink Eazy set to open storefront
Emmily Monrroy was a little girl when she first dreamed of owning her own business. As a child, she imagined building a fashion empire.
However, after growing up and working as a barista for Starbucks and Caribou, as well as a bartender, that dream shifted into a passion for mixology and led to her successful food truck business, Drink Eazy.
Now, in 2026, Monrroy is preparing for the next step: opening a storefront.
Drink Eazy began as an idea more than six years ago. Monrroy was talking with her husband, Jose, when he asked what she would call a place of her own. She came up with Drink Eazy because she wanted any future business she owned to have a speakeasy-style atmosphere.
Emmily Monrroy, co-owner of Drink Eazy, sits on the sofa in one of seating areas of the dining room at her new storefront. The Drink Eazy storefront will be located at 109 Cattlemen’s Drive and opens Oct. 3.
“I wanted it very speakeasy style, like you come as you are. You come, you exist, you get to stay awhile and be yourself and have a good time. I really wanted to create a home environment for people to come to,” Monrroy said.
Jose made Emmily a Drink Eazy sign for their home bar, crafting it out of wood and having a student from Cozad paint it. In doing so, he combined Emmily’s dream with their work in education. At the time, she was a teacher and he was a guidance counselor.
The sign hung in their house while Emmily continued considering the possibility of owning her own business. She debated whether she wanted it to be a bar or a coffeehouse before settling on a coffee and boba trailer. Boba, she said, was something Lexington did not really have, and she wanted to bring something new to her home community.
The couple built their first coffee and boba trailer in 2023 after they married, but it was severely damaged in a Cozad hailstorm. Following the storm, they purchased a new trailer, never giving up on Emmily’s dream.
Over the years, Drink Eazy has become a staple at vendor events and in local communities as the couple has taken the trailer on the road. Their customers have become like friends and family. Emmily said she even got to witness one customer’s pregnancy from start to finish.
“She came to get a drink on her way to being induced,” Monrroy reminisced.
Although Monrroy had 10 years of experience in the service industry before opening Drink Eazy, the consistent connections she made with guests is what led her to want a permanent storefront.
Jose Monrroy made his wife, Emmily, the original Drink Eazy sign as a valentine’s gift. The sign, which originally hung above their home bar, now hangs above the barista station of the new Drink Eazy storefront.
“I value creating an environment where people feel safe and feel like they can be themselves, where people can keep coming back, almost like a home,” Monrroy said. “I really just want to create a home environment for people, and it started in my classroom. Now I’m able to do the same thing for my community.”
Monrroy is currently an eighth-grade teacher at Lexington Middle School, and the care she shows her students extends beyond the classroom to everyone who visits with her. She said that although she and Jose loved their Drink Eazy trailer, they sometimes felt bad for guests who wanted to stay and chat in the cold or heat. A storefront will provide those guests with a comfortable temperature and furniture where they can relax and have conversations.
The Drink Eazy storefront is scheduled to open Oct. 3 at 109 Cattlemen’s Drive in Lexington.
The space was not originally built for the food industry, so the Monrroys had to redo the plumbing, build a hallway leading to the restroom that keeps guests out of the preparation area and construct the preparation area itself. The dining area is nearly finished, and inspections will begin soon.
Six baristas will be hired from a pool of approximately 50 applicants. The number of applications they received shocked the Monrroys.
“Our inspections will be in a couple weeks, and then it’s go time for us,” Monrroy said. “So ,this week, I’ve been focusing on interviews and getting my employees hired. I’m looking to hire around six, and we had pretty close to 50 applications, which was a blessing to me. I really thought there would have been maybe five people applying, and so when we got around 50, we were in shock.
“It was a beautiful thing for us. It makes us so happy that that many people want to work for us. It was insane. I was like, ‘Holy buckets! Wow!’ It’s reassuring to know that we really have made an impact on the community.”
A sofa, chairs, multiple tables and knickknacks decorate the space, which features a soft blush-and-green color scheme that pays homage to Monrroy’s love of nature. She wanted there to be something for everyone: a place for students to study, a place for adults to chat and even a place where meetings could be held.
Her overall goal is connection.
The Drink Eazy trailer is still serving customers, but it will go on hiatus once the storefront opens. The Monrroys plan to bring it back once the permanent location is up and running with a full staff and an expanded menu focused on offering guests more flavors, bobas, jellies and powders.
Monrroy said she and her husband are looking forward to serving their home community of Lexington from the storefront while still being able to attend vendor events to which they are invited.
