I’ve been driving the same twisty back roads in the more rural southern part of Fairfax County, Virginia (just outside Washington, D.C.) for the past 30 or so years. We are fortunate to live in an area that not only offers fun, sweeping, twisty-turny roads, but one where those roads are also generally well-maintained. That, then, translates into an area where on any given morning – and moreso on weekends – you’re likely to encounter any number of interesting cars out enjoying those roads, the same as you.

So a couple of years ago, my neighbor Leo, also a car guy, and I got together and decided that we should somehow find a way to bring our local car community together. I mean, you see a guy in a pristine late 70s BMW 320is, or an old Porsche 914, or a crazy, lowered, hot rod running a diesel Mercedes engine and you think “..these are kindred spirits…” So we did what anyone would do, and we set-up a local car enthusiasts FaceBook group.

We actually got a decent number of joiners – having promoted the group on other local community pages – so we decided to hold a gathering. We would meet at a local public park in the large parking lot and talk cars. So on a very cold late fall morning, three of us (including me in my old Alfa Spider which at the time lacked heat) met up, stood around shivering and talking cars, and then went about our days. Not exactly the carpalooza we’d hoped for, but a start…

A few months later, someone posted a flyer to a few of the local community Facebook groups about a Cars & Coffee event. I don’t remember if Leo pinged me or I called him, but whichever way it went we shared that with each other and also shared a resounding “duh!”. It was one of those silly and obvious ‘why didn’t WE think of that??” moments, and so we put the event on our calendars and also sought the instigator.

It turned out that Kat, a local realtor and fellow car enthusiast who shares a car collection with her husband that presently includes a first generation Camaro, a Porsche GT3, and a Mercedes G63, had developed the flyer as a means to engage the local car community. Admittedly, her idea was better than ours, but we were all somewhat rowing in the same direction, as it were. However, her idea was not a recurring event but rather a one-off.

In all, we got about 25-30 cars that first day. Not bad for a first time and one-off event, and definitely a testament to the reach of social media – and affirmation that there are like-minded car enthusiasts looking for a different event and maybe a little closer to home. That was March, 2025 from 7-9 am. Being a smallish town, the guidance was simply to “meet on Main Street” – and that’s what people did. The three of us – Kat, Leo, and I – agreed that there might be something to this, and decided to try and make it a thing.

Several folks attending the event asked if it was going to be a regular thing. We hadn’t even really considered that, but it made good sense given the initial interest we got followed by several FB comments to our group page from people who had wanted to attend but were unable to for one reason or another. We definitely had interest beyond this singular event, so, sure! Why not?

The only challenge we had was starting at 7am, because the two local coffee shops there on main street didn’t open until 8am. We spoke with the shop owners who agreed to open earlier (730am) once in a while, but that wasn’t really practical for them based on their established staffing and scheduling. Regulars quickly learned to bring at least their first cup of coffee or preferred beverage with them. In any case, we contemplated options – weekly, biweekly, and so on – and ultimately settled on the first and third Saturdays of the month, rain or shine.

Over the next few months, the event grew at a fairly steady pace as word got out both in the local community as well as the extended Northern Virginia car scene. We posted it to our group page with cross posts to other pages. One of our regular attendees set-up an Instagram for the event and promoted it there. By the middle of summer we’d probably doubled our attendance AND managed to attract some pretty cool cars – from esoteric to exotic!

It was around that time that the community started paying more attention as well – but not in a negative way. Our area, like many others, has had challenges with car events that get out of control, usually because of a few bad actors, and get shut down in short order by either the community or the constabulary. We wanted to avoid that, so we welcomed community interaction. First, a local church that hosts a monthly food drive asked if we would promote that to our attendees – which we did. We also shared a QR code for donations to another church right there on Main Street that was collecting money to redo their steeple. We’ve continued supporting and promoting initiatives like these, and have actually been remarkable successful! Selfishly for our event, it’s nice to be able to point to these types of activities as a benefit to having a local event like ours in town!

We also decided to make things a little more formal. While we wanted to support the community, we also wanted to promote a responsible and organized event. We spoke with the local businesses whose parking lots we’d encroached on. Those open for coffee were happy for the business, and the others really just wanted us gone before they opened for business.

Leo designed a logo, and I took that and got us a NICE sign promoting good behavior as well as information about overflow parking. We also got some parking cones so we could block off handicapped spaces (to be used ONLY by those displaying appropriate placards or plates) and a couple of other areas where we needed to ensure folks didn’t park..

So as summer turned to fall and mornings started getting darker, after a few conversations among ourselves and the attendees, we decided that it would make sense to switch from a 7-9am schedule to 8-10am. There were a couple of side benefits to that as well: First, we could get up a little later to do what little setup we needed to do. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the coffee shops would be open. Still, like a lot of these events, we found we had a few early birds that would still show up as early as 7 to 715am. One particularly cool morning I stopped at the local Dunkin Donuts to get some coffee and donuts for the die hards – which, incidentally, costs more than you think……. But it was worth it and appreciated!

It was also during the fall of 2025 that we decided to host our first “drive and dine” event. We had established a core group of Cars & Coffee regulars, and thought that perhaps that group (and anyone else interested) might like to take our car enthusiasm on a little drive around Virginia horse country (Middleburg, Upperville, etc. for those who know the area..). Leo mapped-out a great route combining great driving roads with fantastic fall scenery culminating in lunch at a historic pub – also ensuring that folks knew that it was completely voluntary and we assumed no responsibility for anyone’s actions or issues! Sadly, in this day and age you have to say it… In all we had about 20 takers – some regulars and some new faces – and a splendid time was had by all – something we’d repeat in the spring and we are planning again for fall 2026!

As fall turned to winter, we also pondered whether this was going to be a seasonal event or we were going to keep it going year-round. Our opinions, bolstered by the folks we talked to – was to keep it going and whoever wanted to show would show – and they did! In fact, during winter 2025-2026 there was just one very snowy day when we cancelled (via the Facebook group) and still a couple of folks showed-up, one of them driving a McLaren.. Most weekends, however, having been a pretty mild winter, we got a pretty decent turnout!

As spring, 2026 rolled around we found that word of our event had gotten out! On the first really nice day of the season we had what we thought was a record – about 100 cars. Most events we averaged between 60 and 80 cars, but whether it was a change of scenery or the reputation we’d started developing as a “grown up, chill event” we’d grown. And it was about then that the local town council invited us to their next meeting – just to get to know us and learn about our event… Hmm…

Leo and I attended the meeting and actually found a pretty receptive audience. There are other groups that descend on the town from time to time and due to a variety of factors – noise, timing, crowding, etc. – and the powers that be wanted to make sure that someone was at a minimum working to “manage” the event. They had some basic concerns such as not interrupting local businesses, not blocking resident driveways, not trying to make it so big that it becomes a problem, and doing our best to encourage people to just generally behave. Luckily, we were ahead of them on all those counts with the possible exception of not trying to grow the event… The feedback from the church donations didn’t hurt, either..!

Considering how big the event had gotten and that we’d developed something of a good reputation, we did decide to stop actively promoting outside our own Facebook group.. More or less…

The town council also told us they liked our winter hours. Even without folks actively revving their engines or burning out, a lot of vintage, collector, and special interest vehicles are just a little louder by nature, and they thought 7am may be a tad early for that. They didn’t insist, so we just decided to poll our group – and found that the vast majority supported sticking with the 8-10am schedule. So we did.

And so it goes – we average around 80 cars on a given Saturday, we haven’t had any major issues, we’ve brought something to the car enthusiast community a little closer to home than the other events in our general area, and we’ve even given back, at least a little to the community. Still, we’ve learned a few things:

• Someone has to organize these events if they happen with any regularity. Invariably people look to leaders when they have questions – be they attendees, local officials, or anyone else looking for a point of contact.
• Formalize it to the extent you can. We get compliments on the “professionalism” of our event both in terms of what we put on our social media as well as the stuff like our signage, event notices, post-event photography posts, and even our logo!
• As an organizer you have to be willing to be the “bad guy” sometimes – we’ve had to tell non-handicapped people to move their cars out of handicapped spaces, remind folks not to rev their engines excessively, enforce our “no holding spaces” rule because parking is extremely limited and we’re just not that kind of event, and stuff like that. Make rules, enforce them, and reinforce them.
• Support your community where you can. A lot of goodwill can come through finding something charitable in the community to support. Car culture infiltrates a lot of areas, and we found that even some of the folks seeking support from us were closet car people themselves!
• Engage with local businesses that either have parking that you may want to “borrow” or use, or whose businesses may be supported or affected by your event.
• Build your event through your own social media groups, set up specific groups for your event or community, and cross-post in relevant regional car groups or community groups that welcome posts of that nature.
• Consider selling swag. I started it as sort of a lark, but people seem to really like our t-shirts and mugs….. We may actually look at adding additional stuff. We don’t really make money from them, they’re more or less break-even, especially when you consider the cost of signage and cones….. I’m on my 4th (!) t-shirt order, and need to order my second round of mugs!
• Have fun with it!! The car hobby is supposed to be fun, after all!