New Black-owned coffee and cigar store debuts amid COVID. ‘I’m just glad we did it.’
Coffee shops are nothing new, nor are cigar stores. But a pair of Charlotte-area business partners and friends had the idea of combining the two into one venture.
Sticks and Beans, which had a soft opening July 3 in Concord, offers not just coffee and cigars, but also small plates and a bar. Its owners started selling cigars at restaurants and golf courses in 2018, and the venture grew until they were able to open a permanent location on Edison Square Drive.
“It was something new. It was different, and quite honestly our plan grew as it went along,” said Xavian Seiferth, a Davidson resident and co-owner of Sticks and Beans.
Despite the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated the restaurant industry, Seiferth and co-owner Marcus Samuel decided to go ahead and open a shop anyway.
Both men are Black, and Seiferth said their accomplishment demonstrates what Black business owners are capable of.
A ‘cool’ idea
It takes a moment to fully absorb the interior of Sticks and Beans.
To the right of the entrance, a glass-fronted display case holds boxes of cigars: Cohiba, Ashton, Arturo Fuente Hemingway. Another wall sports a well-stocked bar, and a hallway leads to a back room with a pool table.
On the walls, flatscreen televisions mingle with more classic decor: huge black-and-gold playing cards, a carved block of wood that says “COFFEE” in cursive font. On Wednesday afternoon, light jazz played over the sound system.
But Sticks and Beans began long before it had a permanent location.
Seiferth and Samuel, a Huntersville resident, met four years ago at an open house at W.R. Odell Primary School in Cabarrus County, where they had children in the same class. They became friends, and would drink coffee and smoke cigars, or “sticks,” while they watched football or basketball.
“And then we just started talking about it, saying, ‘What would be cool is if we could bring these two together,’ ” Samuel said. “Because there’s always a coffee shop, there’s always a cigar shop, but it was never together.”
They got started in 2018.
At first they brought their cigars to restaurants and golf courses before expanding to events like parties and weddings. They hired people to act as a “cigar bartender,” offering a curated experience by helping customers select cigars, pair them with drinks, cut them and light them.
Qiara Jordan, the manager at Stats Restaurant & Bar in Charlotte, told the Observer that Sticks and Beans sold their cigars at the restaurant. The cigar and liquor pairings that they offered boosted Stats’ liquor sales, she said.
Last year, Seiferth and Samuel took the venture a step further, buying a truck and outfitting it into a mobile lounge where they could sell their wares, and people could sit and smoke.
In addition to Sticks and Beans, Seiferth works in real estate and Samuel is a software engineer. It can be hard to balance the venture with their other jobs, Samuel acknowledged, but their partnership makes it possible.
“We take our strengths and weaknesses, right?” Samuel said. “(Seiferth) is more of a face, he’s more in public, he’s out there. I’m more in the back on the engineering side.”
By this summer, the pair were ready to open their Concord location.
Make their day
Despite the challenges of opening a business during the COVID-19 pandemic, Samuel said they went ahead because they already had a loyal following.
Still, they had to push back the opening, originally planned for early June, multiple times. Even after the July 3 soft opening, some mail-order furniture has yet to arrive.
But otherwise, at last, Sticks and Beans is open for business at its permanent location, and Seiferth said business has been “great” so far.
The owners said they enforce social distancing and other safety measures. Signs on the floor ask the reader to “STAND SIX BOTTLES OF JACK DANIEL’S APART (AT LEAST 6 FEET).”
“It’s risky coming out. But at the same time I make someone’s day or someone makes my day every single day,” Seiferth said. “We just have to do the safe thing.”
Social distancing guidelines go hand-in-hand with the concept of a cigar bartender, he said.
Someone in a mask and gloves tells customers about the cigars. They’re kept behind the bar so that unlike in a traditional walk-in humidor — a container used for storing cigars — customers don’t have to touch the same merchandise and breathe the same air.
And even if the store has to shut down its indoor seating, Seiferth said they’ll be able to sell their wares to go.
Universal appeal
In addition to the titular coffee and cigars, Sticks and Beans serves drinks at the bar and offers small plates like flatbreads and desserts.
The store attracts different groups of people throughout the day, Seiferth said. A barber shop next door has a 15-minute wait between customers while they spray their chairs down, and customers come to Sticks and Beans wait.
Golfers pick up cigars to go, and some people work on laptops in the hallway or in the back. After 5 p.m., people start smoking outside, Seiferth said, and then things pick up when the “after-dinner crowd” comes to hang out.
Coffee and cigars are constants. Seiferth said sticks are something that “universally brings people together.”
“I’ll tell you, it’s guys (that) come here who are 22, 23 years old that smoke sticks with their granddad,” he said. “There are 55, 65-year-old retired guys, they’ll come in here and have a stick and they’ll sit side by side and have the best conversation ever.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Jordan, the Stats manager, was at the bar talking to Samuel. She told the Observer she wanted to come back and support their business after they supported hers.
“I’m just proud of them,” she added.
‘What we’re capable of’
Seiferth said he’s proud to have opened a business in a moment marked by nationwide protests against racial injustice.
“It shows, basically, what Black owners can do or what we’re capable of,” Seiferth said. It’s something he’ll be able to share with his children, he said, and a legacy he can leave for them.
He added that “the support’s been great, not just from Black people, but from all races so far.”
Samuel said that when his three daughters grow up, they’ll be able to look to his experience and know how to start businesses of their own. And he said their success can show other people that starting a business is possible, if you put the time in.
In the future, Seiferth said the pair would like to host live music and other events, though during the pandemic they’d have to restrict the number of people who could attend. He also said they’re looking at eventually opening other locations.
But first, he said, they want to enjoy what they’ve created once things are back to normal.
“I’m thankful it’s all working out. I’ve got a great partner in a great environment. We have great staff,” Seiferth said. “...I’m just glad we did it, and we pushed through, and we didn’t give up on our dream.”
Want to go?
Sticks and Beans: 10070 Edison Square Dr. NW, Concord, N.C. 28027
Hours: 10 a.m. - 12 a.m. Sunday - Thursday, 10 a.m. - 2 a.m. Friday - Saturday.
Online: sticksandbeans.com
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 12:36 PM.