Cultivate Coffee Roastery is Fuquay-Varina’s first coffee roastery. But, it’s not just coffee that’s brewing there.
Owners Ben and Alexandra Somerville, who are also Fuquay-Varina residents, opened Cultivate Coffee in the summer of 2018. Located in the town’s original EMS station which sits across from the local DMV office, this sublime cafe is a frequent destination for laptop-toting locals who have work to do and need coffee to drink. There is also a small outdoor patio for those who like their coffee or tea al fresco. At almost five years in, Cultivate Coffee is doing something right, and given the Somervilles’ background, that something right has a lot to do with being kind.
Somerville shared that he was an associate pastor for a time and how following the Golden Rule is their guiding principle, both personally and professionally. Treating others as you want to be treated undoubtedly resonates with a lot of people and perhaps never more so than within the community of people challenged by addiction who are pursuing recovery.
Enter Cultivate Coffee and its ever-growing support of people in recovery. Somerville said that this was, in some sense, inevitable, given their predisposition to want to help and make a difference. He shared how they first needed to establish the business and usher it to a successful place in the community. That has happened in a pronounced and wonderful way with Somerville pointing out how there was no fall-off in business during the height of the pandemic. The business actually picked up and thrived during this time as people longed to be part of the community. While some businesses shuttered, Cultivate Coffee continued to serve coffee and be a safe haven for the community.
Somerville detailed his personal connection to addiction, first lamenting how he lost a sibling to addiction and then recounting his own struggles with the insidious disease. We agreed that one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who hasn’t been directly or indirectly impacted by someone struggling with addiction.
It makes sense then that Cultivate Coffee is dedicated to helping those challenged by addiction. As is noted on their website, addiction in its many forms causes chaos across the community. To mitigate this chaos, Somerville said they want to leverage what they are good at to provide help and support wherever it’s needed.
Towards this end, Cultivate Coffee serves people in recovery groups, offering them fresh, hot coffee each week as they work from chaos to cultivation. Their long-term goal is to serve recovery groups nationwide. And beyond the donation of coffee to recovery groups around North Carolina, whenever customers buy a bag of their coffee, a monetary donation is made to support/sustain community recovery groups.
Somerville said that anyone who knows of a recovery group that would be interested in coffee at cost, or even potentially free of charge, should tell them about it. Like any community effort, they need your help in connecting with the heroes, as they put it, that coordinate and lead these critically important groups.
Cultivate Coffee was a logical landing place for the Somervilles. They love coffee and that love evolved into Ben buying and roasting coffee beans at home. He got so good that word of mouth among family and friends compelled him to deliver bags of the roasted beans to a small inner circle. From there, given that Ben and Alex had always dreamed of opening a small business, the jump to Cultivate Coffee seemed natural.
Beyond the expansive list of freshly brewed coffee and teas, one can purchase coffee by the bag. A small array of freshly baked goods is available if you like a snack with your drink. Somerville said plans are in the works to add a small kitchen in the back to support the addition of breakfast and lunch menus. Somerville pointed out how any such move is compelled by community need rather than increasing profits.
In its early days, Cultivate Coffee filled a void in the downtown Fuquay-Varina community. Five years later, a grateful community continues to help this business thrive and grow. Today, Cultivate Coffee provides local residents with a place to go and hang out, socialize, work, network and share. In a very real sense, Cultivate Coffee has moved from being a burgeoning local business to a beloved “patch of fabric” in the greater community quilt. For the Somervilles, success isn’t only measured in dollars. Giving back to the community and treating the community the way you want to be treated is their higher calling and one they’ve answered in a resounding way.
Visit Cultivate Coffee at www.cultivate.coffee/community to learn how you can help.
