The Coffee Scene, a local staple in Fayetteville serving customers for almost 30 years, is now under new ownership. Stacey and Chad Chapman purchased the business and assumed ownership of it in February of this year. 

The Coffee Scene has three locations: their main store on Morganton Road, The Coffee Scene at the Prince Charles and The Coffee Scene - Womack AMC on Fort Bragg. The business is known for their specialty coffees, pastries and homemade gelato. 

Stacey shared that one of her and her husband’s goals is to bring more customers into the Prince Charles location, because even though it is downtown, many people don’t know about that particular store. To increase exposure they’ve begun hosting live entertainment sessions. From jazz music on fourth Fridays to an upcoming art display in honor of Juneteenth, the couple are finding ways to bring the broader community through the doors. 

Also at the Prince Charles location, Stacey shared they’re looking to offer online ordering. With the Morganton location having a drive through window, they’re looking to offer a comparable level of convenience at the downtown space as well. 

For the Morganton location, the couple is working on expanding their menu. The Morganton location has a full kitchen and that is where food is prepared for each of the three locations and for catering orders. 

“We have a full kitchen at our Morganton location. We’ve been working with the baking team. We've actually expanded our baking team so we have some other bakers that are in there now to try to work out some new recipes…One of the things that we would like to do in this particular location (Prince Charles) is we would like to start offering more made-to-order items such as sandwiches. We’d like to have some soups around lunchtime, maybe some salads.”

Customer favorites will stay on the menu while new specialties are introduced to provide variety.

Stacey and Chad are in town in one or more of the stores nearly everyday. They have 26 employees across the three locations.

“We want to know what’s going on. We want to make sure that we’re here to support our employees. And our employees are wonderful. They really, truly are…We've got a lot of seasoned employees, a lot of tenure, and they stayed with us. And so we’re very grateful for that. So we want to make sure that we’re supporting them as well,” remarked Stacey. 

The Chapman’s are new to working in Fayetteville, and Stacey shared that the staff have been wonderful in helping them make this transition smooth. 

“I think probably the most positive thing, as I mentioned earlier, is our staff. I really do put a lot of credit to them for us surviving. And again, I just really think that this community has been super welcoming to us…We have a very loyal customer base,” added Stacey. 

Stacey added that operating the business on Fort Bragg and serving a military community is something she and Chad are very proud to be able to do. 

“I really like the fact that we’re in a community where we’ve got the military base and we’ve got a really strong Veteran community that comes and visits with us too and is part of our loyal customer base, and we’re proud to be part of that,” shared Stacey.

In addition to being business owners, the Chapmans also have two children. 

“We’re looking to build a legacy for our children as well…our oldest son is getting ready to go off to college here in a couple months. His study is going to be in entrepreneurship, so he’s got some vested interest in our business, or at least, if nothing else, understanding the business. One of the things we’re trying to teach them is, no matter how old you are, sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and do something different,” shared Stacey. 

With their first few months of management now under their belt, the Chapmans are eager to see what the future holds for the business. 

“Our long term plans are, we would like to have more locations, not sure exactly where. We would have to kind of pinpoint that. The thing is, there’s a lot of really good things that have been established with this business…processes, procedures, the staff and things like that. And we want to be able to grow on that,” shared Stacey.