You can now grab coffee and gelato in Romare Bearden Park. Here’s the scoop

“We already had a great working relationship with the Mecklenburg Parks and Rec Department via our Cafe Carts operating within the parks and Matthews Sportsplex,” said Mike Robinson, CCO & General Partner. “When the opportunity to bid for the concession services at Romare Bearden came up, my partner, and brother, Charles ‘Chuck’ Robinson, and I saw the bid as a great way to expand our new brand. We’ve only been in business since February, but getting an Uptown brick and mortar base may be a real catalyst to get the word out about our little company.”

The company also has a fleet of mobile, beverage cafes that offer services such as street-side retail, on-site retail, corporate events and more.

On the menu, you can find both coffee and gelato. The team partnered with Enderly Roasters to prepare a series of proprietary roasted bean blends for their house blend, light and dark roasts. Coffee Up Cafe also offers cold brew, nitro coffee and mochas (made with cold brew, fresh dairy or non-dairy, Ghirardelli chocolate). Pair your coffee with a biscotti, or a freshly-baked cookie if you’re feeling wild. Coffees range from $2.49 for a 12-oz. hot coffee to $4.99 for a 16-oz. cold nitro coffee.

“Our focus is on quality,” said Robinson. “We wanted the kiosk to be a place to get the highest quality park refreshments in one stop.”

He added: “We do not cook on the premises but we use as many local small businesses as we can to provide us the best products the city offers,” said Robinson. “Our partners, Enderly Roasters of Charlotte, Artisan Gelato of Matthews and Appalachian Cookie Company at University deserve a lot of credit for helping us hone our menu to offer the best of several normally stand-alone shops.”

Coffee Up Cafe will be fine tuning the menu and operations in order to make the concept work within small space leases in the future. Robinson hopes to open a second and third location by 2020, possibly in NoDa or downtown Matthews.