Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure is a popular spot on Ingersoll Avenue to spend time with friends, relax and enjoy a warm cup of joe.

But for 12 hours last June, Zanzibar’s was transformed into a movie set and overtaken by the cast and crew of “The Coffee Shop,” a 6 1/2-minute film that on Thursday will premiere at the coffeehouse.

“The Coffee Shop,” the film’s executive producers said, follows “Bob,” played by Des Moines actor Eric Foll on his quest to get “just coffee” – not a raspberry latté, an all-American mocha or a fancy drink called the Big Smooth, just coffee.

Filmmaker and freelance writer Dave DeBord wrote the screenplay more than seven years ago, having spent hours sitting in coffee shops observing the varied concoctions that customers order. “You can’t believe what they’re putting into coffee,” he said. “It’s barely coffee.”

DeBord, a member of the Iowa Scriptwriters Alliance, passed the script along to a friend, fellow ISA member Pat Boddy, who has also worked in the film and television industries for many years. About one year ago, a friend hosted a birthday party and asked Boddy to bring along a script so the guests could perform a script reading for the evening’s entertainment. Boddy brought DeBord’s screenplay, and it was a hit.

“It turned out to be this fabulous party game, but also when we did the script with no professionalism, it was still funny,” said Boddy, the film’s co-executive producer. “It became apparent to me this movie had to be made.”

In addition, she said it serves as an excellent source of social commentary, shining light on Americans’ tendency to create complexity in what should otherwise be a non-complex situation.

“We have taken our social structures and made them so intricate that just a simple cup of coffee is a major undertaking,” said Boddy, whose day job is director of the Polk County Conservation Board.

“That was confirmation that it was probably something that would look good on the screen,” said DeBord, who left a career as a landscape architect 15 years ago to become a freelance writer.

Boddy’s vision was to “just get a bunch of friends together and go down to Zanzibar’s and film it there.”

They landed Zanzibar’s as their location. Sure, there are other locally owned coffeehouses in Des Moines “but this one I liked, particularly for the lighting and atmosphere for a movie,” DeBord said. They then hired their three lead actors – Foll, Tammy Brice and Kim Duede – and conducted an open casting call to hire the other 16 members of the cast, which included Zanzibar’s coffee roaster, Janean Schaefer-Denhart. “Because the actors were all handling machinery, she brought professionalism to the way they made coffee,” DeBord said. Nick Bertlesen, who had worked with DeBord in the past, was the movie’s director, and John Houghton was the director of photography.

Though filming took place at Zanzibar’s and a Zanzibar’s employee was in the cast, nowhere in the movie was the coffeehouse’s name used. Many movies include product placement, but it can create a hefty cost for the filmmaker. “Although it’s an independent movie, somebody may ask you to pay for a Coke sign,” DeBord said. All of the film’s props, from aprons to punch cards, were original and generic, adorned with “The Coffee Shop” name.

The filmmakers also had to scrape together the cash to pay for “The Coffee Shop’s” $3,000 filming budget, which, like with many independent films, came partially from outside contributors. “I call them contributors rather than investors, being honest with them that they might not get anything back,” DeBord said.

It was just a few short months before cast and crew, with one day of rehearsals under their belts, took over Zanzibar’s for 12 hours of filming. They got under way at 5 p.m. Sunday, just after closing time, and wrapped up at 5 a.m. Monday, just one hour before the coffeehouse opened for the day.

“There are always delays you don’t expect, but overall the shoot went very well,” DeBord said.

He has spent the past 10 months in post-production – editing, adding music, adjusting sound and creating a movie poster and DVD cover. The DVD, which was schedule for delivery late last week and will be available for purchase at Thursday’s premiere, includes footage of the making of “The Coffee Shop,” as well as four to five minutes of outtakes and a photo gallery.

DeBord said the standard next step for a film such as “The Coffee Shop” is to screen it at film festivals. “There are new festivals popping up every day across the world,” he said. But he and Boddy also see its potential as a training film for coffeehouse employees.

“It has a lot of potential,” Boddy said. “I think a lot of people would sit back and enjoy this. It doesn’t have to be a two-hour movie for it to be entertaining.”