Inspiring Conversations with Ashley Quinn of Southern Magnolia Coffee Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Quinn

Hi Ashley, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Coffee for the Quinns began as a habit of hospitality when friends and family came to our home. We loved the environment that coffee helped to create as much as the coffee, itself. Eventually, Ashley began to dream about owning her own shop. But her vision included both a drive-thru option and an inside space. For over a decade, Ashley was in what we called “car seat season” with our littles, making inside-only coffee shops a chore. But, as the kids grew older, we longed for a locally owned shop with both drive-thru and inside seating.

In 2021 our family moved to the Bunn area, and one of the first things we realized was that there wasn’t a coffee shop within fifteen minutes of downtown Bunn, a small town with a lot of traffic. Ashley’s wheels began to turn about a country style coffee shop–what we sometimes call the Cracker Barrel of coffee shops. A local pharmacy had recently closed in Bunn leaving an end-cap location with a drive-thru window available. We signed the lease in May of 2023 and got to work materializing Ashley’s vision of a country style shop with shabby chic decor. A proper small town country coffee house complete with sweet and savory pastries, and flanked with various vendor items from clothes and jewelry to homemade soaps, lotions, and doggy treats.

On June 15, 2023 Southern Magnolia Coffee Company (“SoMag”) officially opened the drive-thru window, and exactly one month later, doors opened for inside seating as well.

We could not be more thankful for Bunn’s support, and we hope to expand with more locations in the near future.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our greatest obstacle in opening SoMag was simply our inexperience. Neither of us had a background in food service, and we knew virtually nothing about the business side of coffee. Moreover, until a few days before opening, neither of us had ever touched an espresso machine! The learning curve for us was steep.

But, the encouragement of a friend and fellow coffee-shop owner motivated us through the challenges. Like planning a wedding, you don’t realize the number of details until you’re in the thick of it. But, one decision at a time, the fog lifts and before you know it, you see the fruit of your labor in the faces of your customers.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Southern Magnolia Coffee Company ?
Southern Magnolia Coffee Company (“SoMag”) is a small town coffee shop based in Bunn, NC. With both a drive-thru window and inside-seating, as well as food and vendor items, SoMag prioritizes quality food and coffee as well as community with diverse seating spaces from couches and farm tables to bistro and corner tables. We offer weekly deliveries to our local schools, as well as community events such as story time, various classes, Christmas cookie decorating, ornament making followed by visits with Santa and our very own Letter’s to Santa corner with a mailbox that delivers straight to the North Pole.

What matters most to you?
High school kids hanging out on the couch before and after school, stay at home moms enjoying a latte while their kids play in the “Kids Cafe”, the men’s Bible study group gathering at the farm table on Friday mornings–these are the daily moments at SoMag that matter so much to us. Sure there are challenges to coffee shops and food service in general; but the community that gathers around coffee is a reward worth fighting for.

There is so much more we could say, but let us simply conclude with how grateful we are to have launched SoMag in Bunn. The town’s support and the friendship of the people already mean the world to us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://somagcoffee.square.site
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southernmagnoliacoffeecompany
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somagcoffee/