rooted.
Good work.Good coffee.Good news.
A world where everyone can belong, heal, grow, and flourish together.
rooted is a neighborhood enterprise in South Charlotte. A café first, roasting after, staffed and shaped by the people who live here.
Brookhill Village and Southside are two public housing communities off South Tryon Street. The land around them has gotten expensive fast. Families who have been here for decades are watching the neighborhood change and doing the math on how long they get to stay.
rooted is one answer to that. A business that hires on these blocks, teaches a real trade, and keeps its money moving through the neighborhood instead of out of it. Most of the people we hire live in Brookhill Village or Southside. The wages land where they live.
What’s strong,
not wrong
Ask people in Brookhill Village and Southside about work and you get a version of the same answer. There are jobs. They aren’t good jobs. Hours that move around every week. Pay that doesn’t cover the rent. Nothing that leads anywhere. And for people coming home from prison, doors that close before the conversation starts.
We heard it at Trinity’s Table, the community meal we host, and in a lot of one-on-one conversations before that. rooted is what we’re building in response.
We exist to provide meaningful employment opportunities, community support, and spiritual depth for persons who have been formerly incarcerated and historically disadvantaged.
The people who told us what was wrong are the people we’re hiring. Some of them will be in the room where decisions get made.
A café first. The roaster after.
The café opens Winter 2026 at 2516 South Tryon Street, in the church building. Neighbors behind the counter, hired and trained as baristas, paid hourly from the first day of training.
We’ll pour coffee from a partner roaster while our own space is built out. Roasting goes into the same building once renovation is done. We’re aiming for 2027.
Coffee makes sense as a first business for a few plain reasons. You can begin without much capital. Pulling shots and running a roaster are real skills somebody can learn and carry anywhere. The product keeps on a shelf. And churches, schools, and offices across Charlotte already buy a lot of it, week after week.
The café
Winter 2026. Counter service at 2516 South Tryon, pouring a partner roaster’s coffee. First wages, first revenue, first proof.
The roastery
2027. Our own equipment in the same building, after renovation. Beans with our name on them.
Wholesale and subscriptions
Standing orders from churches, offices, and partner organizations. Recurring bags shipped to households. Contracted and invoiced, predictable enough to plan payroll around.
Each phase has to carry payroll before the next one starts.
The longer
plan
Coffee is the start. What we’re really building is the ability to run something well: hiring, training, pricing, keeping books, making decisions with the neighborhood rather than about it. Once we can do that, we can do it again with a second venture.
Community involvement stays at the center of it. Neighbors on staff, neighbors in leadership, and a business whose wages and decisions land here.
Where we come from
rooted grew out of South Tryon Community United Methodist Church and the neighbors of Brookhill Village and Southside.
Who we learn from
Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Deep Time at Trinity UMC in Asheville, running a coffee social enterprise since 2023.
Where we are now
The café opens Winter 2026 at 2516 South Tryon Street. The roastery goes into the same building, with renovation to follow. We’re seeking a wholesale roasting partner for opening, and raising toward launch.
Let’s grow something beautiful together.
If you fund neighborhood economic development, buy coffee in volume, want a bag when the first roast drops, or just want to know more before you decide anything, tell us who you are. We’ll follow up.