All up in your business for Sept. 22

Perennial

Many UNC students make the trek to Carrboro for a cup of local craft coffee and peaceful environment. Walk no farther because a new coffee shop is in town.

Perennial, located between Cuban Revolution Express and Ascension Tattoo on W. Franklin Street offers a local option with specialty coffee from Counter Culture. They’ve been open for about a month and have seen a steady increase of customers, Perennial Owner Mimi Hock said.

“We’ve really relied on organic promotion and word of mouth,” said Hock. “We wanted people to discover us themselves.”

Perennial has distinguished itself by providing a new coffee experience for the Chapel Hill area — one that emphasizes quality and environment.

“We’re offering a local option, something that’s run by local business owners, supplied by local vendors and really puts more emphasis on craftsmanship,” Hock said. “It’s really more about providing a well-crafted beverage that tastes good.”

They provide Counter Culture coffee, which is a wholesale coffee provider focused on sustainability and high quality production. They also offer pastries and desserts. 

“We didn’t want to be intimidating for our consumers,” said Hock. “We wanted to take this as an opportunity to help the community learn about coffee and how it really tastes when you pare it down to really pure, simple ingredients.”

Launch Chapel Hill

This summer, Launch Chapel Hill, a startup accelerator, acquired more office space that nearly doubled its size. 

“We saw more and more of our companies in a position where they were scaling and growing but they weren’t quite ready to go out and rent office space on their own,” said Dina Rousset, director of Launch Chapel Hill. 

Launch Chapel Hill is an accelerator company that accepts eight to ten companies every six months to rent space in their building and gain access to a network of mentors and peers.

Their original office is located on 321 W. Rosemary St. and has mostly divided offices that startup companies can rent to work from. The additional office, on 306 W. Franklin St, has an open floor plan with movable furniture to be able to open up the area for events. 

Launch’s new space hopes to benefit the UNC startup community and promote business growth.

“Students have a space to come and work where they’re working alongside other student entrepreneurs as well much more experienced entrepreneurs,” Rousset said. 

Tama Tea

Watch out Starbucks — there’s a new café on the block, but they aren’t focused on coffee.

Tama Tea, originally located in Wilmington, is opening a new shop in the space where Sweet Frog used to be on Franklin Street. 

“We started with the entire Triangle and tried to find the hottest spots that made sense for our café-style brand,” Tama Tea co-founder Rocco Quaranto said. “That spot became available and we jumped on it, right across from Top of the Hill and on Franklin Street. We think it’s going to be a great spot for us.”

The café offers signature tea drinks including matcha green tea, as well as coffee and desserts. They will also offer light meals.

Quaranto said they plan to open another location in downtown Raleigh following the opening of the Franklin Street Tama Tea. 

Many customers travel back and forth between Wilmington and the Triangle and are excited to see the new locations open up, said Quaranto. 

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