Durham's Kaffeinate hopes community bonds over coffee

Photo c/o Kaffeinate

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH ...

By Dathan Kazsuk & Jennifer Primrose | February 28, 2018
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Email: trianglearoundtown@gmail.com

In this edition of Five Questions With ... we reached out to Diana Lee from Kaffeinate, a new coffee shop located in Durham, after meeting her and her brother at the Durham Media Mission in January. This family business is not new to small business. Diana's parents owned a few service-oriented businesses in North Raleigh and one restaurant in Chapel Hill. Her and her brother decided to enter the coffee business because of their mutual love of coffee. Diana's brother is a coffee guru who knows the technicalities of roasting and processing the bean from plant to product. While Diana loves anything that brings community together, and she believes coffee has become such an integral part of the way that people bond and converse in our society. Together, this duo hopes to bring superior coffee service - from product to atmosphere to education - to the Triangle.

Why did you select Durham as the city to startup your business? Durham and the Triangle is an ever-growing area and our coffee scene is pretty big in this area, correct?  Absolutely! The foodie scene in the Triangle has been explosive. From award winning restaurants, innovative combinations of food and service and retail, and more, we find the Triangle to be an exciting area for food and drink at this time. We also find that the residents here really know their coffee “stuff” and appreciate the history and science behind it. Durham in particular has such an entrepreneurial spirit that we wanted to get in on – and this extends beyond the traditional ways we see entrepreneurship. We find it to be a place we can continue innovate and create community.

Related Story: Media Mission Spotlights Durham businesses

Tell us a little bit about the coffee you serve. Where do you get your coffee beans from? How many different types of coffee/beans are available to customers? Do you do your own roasting? If so, what is the process?  We get our drip coffee from Dilworth Coffee, a local coffee roaster. We are really excited about being able to feature rotating local roasters for our espresso and pour over options and have so far partnered with Caballo Rojo, a Durham roaster. We have a house blend on drip that is always available, but we also feature single origins options on rotation like Guatemala, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Peru, Brazil, etc. 

Photo c/o Kaffeinate

Tell us about your coffee list and food menu. What can one expect when they come to visit? We heard you are featuring Belgian waffles. How did you come up with coffee and waffles being the perfect combo?  We offer the traditional espresso drink options such cappuccinos and lattes and have a range of flavors that we can add to those as well as alternative milks like soy and almond. We have monthly specialty drinks and anything can be iced. We have a deliciously smooth cold brew as well and many non-coffee options such as a matcha latte and house-brewed chai.

We do feature Belgian waffles! We want our community to feel at home in the shop, and we were thinking about the ideal weekend morning, being able to take your time sipping your coffee and munching on ...? Waffles, of course! We love the warmth and home-like feel of a waffle paired with your coffee – it’s familiar enough to be nostalgic but rare enough to be a luxury at the same time. Get your fluffy Belgian waffle topped with an assortment of fruits like blueberries, strawberries and bananas, and add extras like whipped cream, nutella, fudge sauce and more!

Related Story: Raleigh couple plans to bring first cat café to town

You are located in a great place, next to the Durham School of Arts, as well as other restaurants, etc. How has your business been since you opened (and what was your official open date)? Seems like it would be pretty consistent in that location and with the school nearby. We opened in mid-October and have had such a wonderful reception so far from the community. We love being by DSA and able to serve the hard working staff, faculty and students there, and we love being in the downtown area close to Duke and all the office buildings. We’re also fortunate enough to be right across the street from many West Village residents and just right around the corner from Brightleaf Square.

Photo c/o Kaffieinate

Baristas and Mixologists ... they both take the craft of making drinks to a new level. How passionate are baristas in making coffee drinks for customers? Do they strive to come up with new mixtures/ideas in the likes of cocktails? If so, what are some unique drinks someone can find in Kaffeinate? Our baristas are constantly working on taking our drinks to the next level and coming up with unique and delicious flavor combinations. These are usually featured as our monthly specials – for example, our February featured drinks are the pistachio rose latte and the lavender vanilla latte; for January, we had our Okinawan steamer made with purple sweet potato, maple syrup, and spices. We have friendly competition in the shop for who can create the best latte art, and we’re always studying coffee in our free time. For us, it’s all about quality, consistency, and community, and we hope you’ll come see that for yourselves!

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Kaffeinate is located at 115A North Duke Street, Durham, NC 27701

Keep up with Kaffeinate by visiting their web page at www.kaffeinatenc.com or follow along on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kaffeinatenc

If you or someone you know would like to be featured in a monthly Five Questions With, please send an email to trianglearoundtown@gmail.com

Flavors prevail for Raleigh's Sweetheart Treats cupcake shop

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH ... 

By Jennifer Primrose | January 24, 2018

Twitter: TriangleAT | Facebook: Triangle Around Town | 
Instagram: trianglearoundtown | Pinterest: TriangleAT

In this edition of Five Questions With ... we reached out to Mary Hinton, owner of Sweetheart Treats, located in the Falls River Shopping Center in north Raleigh. Soon to be celebrating 1-year in April, we first met at a wine and cupcake pairing at neighboring business, Uncorked Wine & Coffee Café, for a Valentine’s Day tasting prior to opening at this location. This family business is a full service bakery making and selling treats such as brownies, cake push pops, Rice Krispy Treats – but most known for its cupcakes, including a line of gluten free and vegan cupcakes. They are also known for the "Drunken Cupcake" which are made with wine, champagne and high-end spirits. We recently caught up with Mary to learn a little more about her and what inspired Sweetheart Treats to become what it is today.

What made you decide to open up a store and sell cupcakes for a living? What were you doing prior to baking treats? I was ready for a professional change. After working in senior-level management for someone else my entire career, I decided to bid on myself and became an entrepreneur. My mom had the vision for the cupcake business. So it was a natural decision because who doesn’t love cupcakes? I wanted to create happiness for people and I believe that is what I am doing.

Culinary is a form of art. Tell us how you create life into your works of art that others enjoy. What's your inspiration with creating the cakes and coming up with different and unique flavors? I like to have fun with my treats. I think it is extremely important for people to connect with desserts. Something becomes your favorite, because it speaks to all the things you love. So, I like to ask a lot of questions when working with a client and that way I’m able to bring something to life that I know they’ll love. It’s like baking for your friends at that point! I may get a special request for something and in working with a client may come up with something new that I can then add to the menu. I also get inspiration from friends and family. This is one of the reasons all of my cupcakes have names. They are created based on someone I've met. 

Speaking of flavors … how many different cupcake flavors have you come up with? From the icing to the batter itself, what is your favorite? What is your most popular cupcakes? I’m not sure of the exact number at this point, but I have over 180 flavors. My favorite is The Alice – a sweet potato cupcake. I love this cupcake because it is named after my grandmother and it reminds me of her amazing sweet potato pies she always bakes for me. My most popular cupcake is The April – triple chocolate. To this day, I have sold over 2,000 of these cupcakes. Some of our other popular cupcakes are The Mark – Oreo, The Mel – honeybun, The Louis – banana pudding, The Speedy – orange crème, The Lavern – funnel cake, and The Donald – maple bacon.

Related Story: Raleigh candy makers win Good Food Awards

You came up with what is known as the “drunken cupcake.” How did you come up with this concept? And tell us about some of the drunken cupcakes you’ve created in the past … and is there anything new we can look forward to? It’s a play off the traditional holiday cakes that have rum or some other kind of cognac. People have been cooking with alcohol forever, but I have taken that concept and paired my recipes with liquor and liqueurs that accentuate the flavors. One of the more popular of the drunken cupcake is The Vanessa – Champagne, The Jeezy – margarita, and The Patrick – Irish car bomb cupcakes. I have a couple of ideas for new cupcake flavors, but I can’t give away all my secrets! I must give my customers something to look forward to! Just know that Valentine’s Day is coming up as well as our 1-year anniversary on April 28, and a cupcake happy hour. So we will have some great things in store in the next couple of months.

Now that you have a storefront location in the Falls River Shopping Center what are the future plans for Sweetheart Treats? What can we look forward to in 2018 so we can all get our sugar fix? We are just getting started! I love having an actual store where I can interact with my customers and see the effect Sweetheart Treats has on their day, but we want to be able to spread our joy nationwide. An expansion is in our future along with online sales and new partnerships! You can look forward to getting your sugar fix in more places than one!

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Keep up-to-date with Sweetheart Treats by visiting their web page at www.sweethearttreatsnc.com or follow along on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sweethearttreatsnc/

If you or someone you know would like to be featured in a monthly Five Questions With, please send an email to trianglearoundtown@gmail.com.

New Wine & Beer Shop Opens in Falls Village Shopping Center

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH ... 

Falls Village Wine & Beer's bar will open to the public on Nov. 21, 2017.

By Dathan Kazsuk
Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017


Falls Village Wine & Beer is opening to the public just days before Thanksgiving. Ready to offer an assortment of 12-16 beers on draft as well 8 wines on draft. The wine and beer retail shop will feature over 450-plus different wines (featuring some high-end wines such as Relic, Biale, Turley and Reynolds Family) and craft beer. Falls Village Wine & Beer is brainchild of Jim Soffe – who many will remember as one of the knowledgeable wine reps with Advintage Distributing. The shop lies at the bottom corner of the Falls Village Shopping Center right next to the Raleigh CrossFit Sua Sponte. This seems to be a perfect place to unwind after a long day with a pint of beer or glass of wine. Grab a bottle of wine for the road, a 6-pack to go, or like something on the tap list? Then get a 32-ounce Crowler filled to enjoy at home.

We recently caught up with Soffe prior to the grand opening – and here are some excerpts from the interview.

So tell us a little bit about yourself? How did you get your start in the business? Well, my first restaurant job was at Margaux's Restaurant back in 2000. They knew I didn't know anything, especially about wine. Steve (Horowitz) was very cool to me. They realized I couldn't cut it as a waiter. So they wanted me to be a back-waiter, but I couldn't even see the dishes to run food (because the counter was too tall). I had to stand on my tip-toes. And that didn't work out, so I ended up busing tables. Mark Morrow actually took me under his wing, because no one else cared to train a 21-year-old about wine. There were already guys there for 10 years – some of them are still there. I opened a lot of restaurants as a waiter and bartender, and even managed quite a few of them. To this day I still miss the speed and the work involved. Then I got into the wine side, and I thought it would be great getting to connect with people. I finally put some money away, and came upon this location. 

There are so many distributors out there to get your beer from, not to mention some places you can go directly to them for beer. Will you try to go out of your way to pick up some unique beers that will intrigue the high-end beer drinkers? At first, I wanted to limit the amount of vendors that I plan on dealing with – but I'm so familiar with wine that I didn't even realize how much beer is out there, and how many small guys are out there. And these small guys have beer that I really, really want to have. I'm probably picking up around 12 extra vendors just to bring in one beer. And there are beers that I'll actually go to their warehouse myself to bring to my shop. Some of them might not be affordable beers, but the taste of these beers are paramount.

Related Story: Raleigh's bottle shop shares a passion and vision for wine and beer

I'm sure many of these will be local beers? Will you be a big supporter of NC beer? Of course. I will support local. It's easier to get local beers than some of the hard to find beers from out of state, obviously. Most of these local guys are friends of mine – so I want to support and celebrate a lot of their new stuff. 

We always joke that you can throw a stone across town and it will hit a new bottle shop. With that being said, what will make you different than your typical beer and wine bottle shop? I don't mind the term 'bottle shop,' but I don't want to be known as that. Mainly because I don't want to break up the packaged goods. I want to sell them as they are packaged. I've heard this question from a lot of people. And I thought about that a lot. For me, I'm treating people as guests as they come in. Everyone I've hired has a restaurant background. We are a retail shop, but I want the mentality of a restaurant. If I had the will to do it, I would put a kitchen in the back of the store. I really love that State of Beer did.  

What's some words of advice you would give to someone else who wants to open a wine and beer shop similar to yours? Patience. Patience. Patience. Not everyone is going to see your ambition. It's going to take some time. So be sure to have patience.

Be sure to like Triangle Around Town on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to follow our adventures of local craft beer, wine, cider/mead and travel.

If you or someone you know would like to be featured in our monthly Five Questions With, please send an email to trianglearoundtown@gmail.com.