Popular Coastal North Carolina Coffee Shop Expands into the Triangle with 2 New Coffee Shops

A coastal coffee brand is expanding into the Triangle this spring with two all-day cafes.

Popular Wilmington-area coffee shop Drift Coffee & Kitchen will open new cafes in shopping centers in Raleigh and Chapel Hill this year. Drift’s first coffee shop and restaurant will open in Raleigh’s Ridgewood Shopping Center on Wade Avenue by late spring. Two months later, Drift plans to open its second all-day cafe in Chapel Hill’s Village Plaza shopping center off Elliott Road.

Drift started in 2014, opened by brothers Michael and Ben Powell with a cafe on Ocean Isle, where they grew up surfing.

Michael Powell said he and his brother didn’t grow up with the aromas of coffee filling their house in the morning and their parents never brewed pots of coffee at home. It wasn’t until he began traveling the world as a professional surfer that Powell began to discover coffee culture.

Powell said his drive as a professional surfer was all-consuming and never-ending, but while living and surfing in Australia and Southeast Asia, he began to find moments of relaxation in a cup of coffee.

“I always felt like I had so much to accomplish in sports to be a person,” Powell said. “In Australia, I just wanted to sip coffee, sit and read… It was a lively environment, where socializing was constant.”

Over the past decade, Drift has expanded to six locations, all located in and around Wilmington. Four of them operate as cafes and restaurants, offering hearty food menus as well as artisan coffee options. The other two focus on quick service coffee. All Drift locations brew coffee beans from Wake Forest Black & White Roaster.

“We wanted to serve great coffee and inspire modern wellness, holistic health integration,” Powell said in a phone interview.

Powell said the new Triangle locations will be the full-service restaurant model, with a full restaurant menu, coffee and evening drinks.

“The biggest priority is serving our customers, but that looks different for different people,” Powell said.

Moving into the Triangle is Drift’s first expansion beyond Powell’s familiar shoreline. Powell said the Triangle stands out from Charlotte or Washington because of its long history with artisan coffee and is only a day trip away.

“We’re not growing for the sake of growing,” Powell said. “Raleigh is a more mature coffee market, there are great stores like Jubala and Sola that have been around for over a decade. There are already great coffee experiences and dozens of cafes doing things very well.

Powell said Drift is looking to stand out among Raleigh cafes with its food menu, which includes Nutella French toast, a line of eggs Benedicts, a burger and a chicken sandwich.

“We’re focusing more on food,” Powell said. “We want a lively restaurant with great coffee.”