Coastal NC coffee shop plans another Raleigh location. When it will open
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Drift Coffee + Kitchen named first retail tenant at The Weld, opening summer 2026.
- All-day cafe near Dix Park will offer substantial breakfast, lunch and coffee beverages.
- The Weld’s first phase includes The Holston apartments, which is now leasing.
A coffee shop with roots in coastal North Carolina is expanding in the Triangle with a second location in Raleigh.
Drift Coffee + Kitchen is the first retail tenant announced for The Weld, a mixed-use development near Dorothea Dix Park.
The developers were familiar with the brand and sought out Drift Coffee + Kitchen as a tenant, cafe co-founder Michael Powell told The News & Observer in a phone interview. The coffee shop’s mission is to serve people, inspiring “modern wellness” and the best version of each person.
“We just align with what they’ve built there,” said Powell, who co-founded the coffee shop with his brother, Ben Powell, in 2014. “And we’re really excited to be a part of this hub of activity that hopefully will turn into something amazing.”
The cafe has one other shop in Raleigh, at Ridgewood Shopping Center off Wade Avenue, and is opening soon at Horseshoe at Hub RTP. It also has a cafe in Chapel Hill, but its larger presence is in Eastern North Carolina, where it has locations in Wilmington, Hampstead, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach and Ocean Isle Beach.
Expected to open in summer 2026, Drift will be a 1,490-square-foot all-day cafe with indoor and outdoor seating serving signature coffee drinks alongside a pared-down food menu.
Drift Coffee menu
Drift’s location at The Weld will be different from the Wade Avenue location, which is a full-service cafe that also serves wine, beer and cocktails.
At The Weld, customers will still be able to find traditional drinks including lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites along with regular coffee made with beans from Black & White Coffee Roasters. According to the Wade Avenue store’s online menu, these drinks cost between $3 and $5.
Foods served at the new Raleigh location will still be substantial, Powell said, but the menu will be slightly more limited than at the Wade Avenue cafe. Think breakfast burritos, avocado toast and bowls for lunch — but no pancakes or eggs Benedict.
At the Wade Avenue cafe, breakfast plates range from $11 to $16.50, and lunch entrees start at $12.50.
Developments on downtown Raleigh’s southern edge
Developed by SLI Capital and Mack Real Estate Group, the 20-story apartment building called The Holston is part of the first phase of The Weld, which is located at 1000 Hammell Drive in Raleigh.
Another building called Ray at the Weld is scheduled to open in December. It will have 392 units, a pool deck and eight townhomes, The News & Observer previously reported.
The second phase of the development, which has not received funding, will include 575 more residential units and up to 30,000 square feet of retail, office space and connectivity.
But The Weld is not the only development coming online in the area.
Nearby along Lake Wheeler Road, Rockway also features residential and retail space. The Row apartments are open, and the development has named Benchwarmers Bagels, Campo Taco Co., BK Pilates and Sunflower’s Cafe as its tenants.
This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Coastal NC coffee shop plans another Raleigh location. When it will open."
