This story was written for our sponsor, the Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership.
Downtown Wake Forest is in the midst of an amazing renaissance.
Twenty years ago, the streets of downtown Wake Forest were quiet. Now, those streets are filled with international award-winning coffee connoisseurs, custom woodworkers with ties to HGTV, and a nationally recognized ice cream shop that sources its flavors locally. Together, these diverse businesses create a unique ecosystem, intentionally cultivating innovation and community.
In doing so, they’ve created a strong foundation for continued downtown growth.
“Small business is the fabric of the community. Almost everyone here works in Wake Forest, lives in Wake Forest, and shops in Wake Forest, so that money continues to go back into the community — and that’s how communities grow,” said Lem Butler, 2016 United States Barista Champion and co-owner of Black & White Coffee Roasters. “In the ’80s, we saw these small town communities fall apart as these big chains started coming in and downtowns started shutting down. Now, we’re seeing revitalization. In Wake Forest, the downtown is where people live, work, and play, and we’ve seen everyone fall back on that community emphasis.”
While Butler’s Black & White Coffee Roasters now has three locations, the business got its start in Wake Forest. Fresh off of competing in international barista championships, Butler and his partner Kyle Ramage sought to return to their roots: good, simple coffee.
A core tenant of Black & White is the emphasis on community. Since opening, the coffee shop has participated in downtown festivals, the farmers market, community auctions, and more. Most recently, they launched a series of online coffee roasting lessons that has been widely popular in the midst of staying at home during the pandemic.
“It’s that small town community aspect that makes small businesses here successful. You have Raleigh not too far away, but you can’t really find this atmosphere in too many places around Raleigh — you have to go to these smaller towns like Wake Forest,” said Butler. “That was what really sparked us to open up other cafes that are community-based around the Triangle area, especially after we saw how people really embraced us around Wake Forest.”
In addition to this community emphasis, another core component of Wake Forest’s unique downtown culture is the frequent collaboration between local businesses.
At Lumpy’s Ice Cream, founder Buck Buchanan has created hundreds of original flavors, all stemming from a passion to serve his own kids ice cream that is hormone and antibiotic-free. This hobby led him down a path that now sees Lumpy’s sourcing many of its ingredients from surrounding Wake Forest businesses and farms.
Several breweries and coffee shops have helped fuel flavors, and milk from Mapleview Farm makes up the dairy base. This year, Lumpy’s has partnered with Bodega, a local tapas and wine restaurant just steps from Lumpy’s location in downtown, to create its most recent flavor and a crowd favorite — French Rum Raisin.
“We’ve been in Wake Forest for about ten years now, and every year its people are more and more kind to us. We’re a hometown community and each year it just keeps getting better,” said Buchanan.
It’s that hometown philosophy that powers the unique culture at Lumpy’s and radiates out to downtown Wake Forest businesses in general, influencing the way businesses interact with not only customers, but also one another.
“The folks that come downtown are looking for small business — they’re not looking for chain-style restaurants — they want something unique and cozy and family-oriented. We started our business so that we could accomplish that, and see the people themselves and not just a credit card,” said Buchanan. “The Downtown Business Alliance also helps the businesses keep up with each other and help each other work through issues. We’re very much into giving back to our community, and anytime we decide to do anything, other local businesses are always willing to help us accomplish our goals.”
While downtown Wake Forest is conducive to local businesses like restaurants, coffee shops, and ice cream stops, it also supports a number of niche entrepreneurial endeavors.
At Duvall & Co., David Duvall and his wife Dani create handcrafted tables, desks, doors, and more from solid furniture-grade hardwoods. When the couple first moved to Wake Forest almost ten years ago, pickings were slim for local businesses.
Now, after nine years in operation, they’ve had front-row seats to downtown Wake Forest’s entrepreneurial transformation.
“Part of what makes the town such a good environment for businesses, from a semantics viewpoint, is it’s less the word ‘town’ as much as it is the word ‘community.’ Wake Forest is a tight-knit community, especially as far as entrepreneurs and business owners go — it’s very much a mindset of ‘we’re all in this together,'” said David. “All of the small businesses in the town have thought about how we can help each other out and encourage each other. Even customers come to see us and half the reason they do that is because we’re a small, local business. There’s a sense of community on all levels, from other small business owners to the folks that live in town.”
Since Duvall & Co. recognizes the impact the downtown community has on their business’ success, they’re intentional about paying it forward every chance they get.
“One of the things that we always strive for and something that we always said when we started to evolve as a company was to give back to the community. We love the community setting, and we always find a way every single year to give back,” said Dani. “This year, we gave a portion of our December sales to the Tri-Area Food Pantry. That emphasis on giving back is a big part of why we do what we do.”
In every facet of operating their business, Duvall & Co. puts the community in downtown Wake Forest at the forefront of their decisions. The business was recently selected by HGTV to provide furniture for one of the network’s programs. As part of their agreement, the Duvalls asked the network to shoot a scene featuring downtown Wake Forest, hoping to give the town some national exposure.
“We own a business in Wake Forest, but we also live in Wake Forest,” said David. “Our kids go to school in Wake Forest. Our friends live in Wake Forest. Like a lot of the other business owners, we’re very deeply ingrained in the community, and it’s been a fun ride to see the growth over the past nine years.”
With strategic downtown development as a continuing priority for the Town of Wake Forest and a number of multi-million dollar projects underway like Loading Dock Wake Forest, Stanley Martin Town Homes, PowerHouse Row and more, downtown Wake Forest is positioning itself for a future defined by more innovative entrepreneurs, more creative artisans, and more genuine community.
This story was written for our sponsor, the Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership.
