A popular Triangle coffee shop is closing one location + opening another one soon
Raleigh-based 321 Coffee, a roaster and coffee shop that exclusively employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, will close its Durham cafe location next month.
This move will help the company transition to opening its forthcoming location on NC State’s Centennial Campus, which is “on track to open in the next month or two,” CEO and co-founder Lindsay Wrege told The News & Observer this week.
The 321 team decided not to renew the lease for the Durham shop. The last day to visit the Durham location will be Saturday, Aug. 3, says 321’s Instagram post announcing the closure.
321 Coffee will continue operating out of their Downtown Raleigh and State Farmers Market locations, as well as two in-office cafes.
321 Coffee opening location on NC State’s campus
Amid the Durham cafe’s closure, “we are proud to be retaining everyone on our team and have exciting opportunities ahead,” Wrege said.
Production has ramped up significantly — especially in their roasting facility — since announcing their forthcoming Raleigh cafe last August. The company began selling in six nearby Whole Foods locations last month, adding to the Weaver Street Market partnerships from October.
“Production has picked up, so [roasters] are needed more here, and the coffee cart has been busy so we need to have people there, and traffic at the shops have been picking up so we might start to hire more there too. It’s so exciting that there’s the need across the board so we can bring more people on,” Wrege previously told The N&O.
What’s Raleigh’s best coffee shop? Readers say 321
321 won The N&O’s Triangle Coffee Bracket in 2021. Even while standing out amid the Triangle’s coffee scene, Wrege said the coffee was just a means of building a large community.
“It shows people are a part of it,” Wrege said of winning the coffee bracket. “We couldn’t do this without our baristas and our customers showing up. It’s not just me. It’s this team, we’re truly grassroots.”
About 321 Coffee
The name 321 references Down Syndrome, which many of its 50-plus employees have, meaning the third copy of the 21st chromosome.
321 Coffee got started at NC State in 2017, when Wrege and Evans were freshmen in the Park Scholars program. They often tell of their humble beginnings with nothing but a folding table and a coffee machine from Target.
The team secured a spot at the State Farmers Market in 2019 and eventually expanded to take over the booth next door, where they continue serving customers today. The company’s first brick-and-mortar location opened in downtown Raleigh in summer 2022, then their downtown Durham location opened later that year.
321’s Centennial Campus location is slated to include a full coffee menu, light food offerings, ample seating and a reservable conference room. An opening date has not yet been set.
This story was originally published July 25, 2024 at 2:56 PM with the headline "A popular Triangle coffee shop is closing one location + opening another one soon."
