Meet Christine. As the founder of Soul Spire Café, Christine blends her lifelong love of coffee with a deep desire to build community. Her vision is to build a creative hub in Cabarrus County where creatives, artists, makers and musicians can come together over a perfectly brewed cup.
Raised in Brooklyn in a tight-knit Italian family, Christine’s connection to coffee began early.
“Everyone would come over for coffee, and when I turned twelve, I was finally allowed to have some,” she laughed. “From then on, I was making it, serving it and experimenting with all kinds of blends. I’ve been obsessed ever since.”
Coffee fueled her successful career as a corporate consultant in learning design and technical project management, and it continues to inspire her entrepreneurial journey. When she moved from New York to North Carolina, eventually settling in Concord, she found herself owning a small business and selling at vendor fairs and events.
Christine was drawn to the growing creative community and recognized that coffee was fueling other makers around her, who were also staying up late at night building their products and working on their craft. This was when she started exploring the idea of starting her own coffee business.
It all began with small-batch roasting at home, giving her blends as Christmas gifts, and later selling them at local markets. When the pandemic hit, her passion project took on new meaning.
“Every gathering I’ve ever had revolved around coffee,” she said. “I wanted to share that experience again, especially when people were craving connection.”
In the fall of 2024, Christine applied for the Retail Lab Boot Camp, a six-week business accelerator hosted at the Cabarrus Center and powered by the Rowan-Cabarrus Small Business Center and the Flywheel Foundation. The program helps early-stage and pre-launch retail-based entrepreneurs refine their business models, build brands and connect with mentors and peers. However, right before the boot camp began, she had to leave the program due to a loss in her family. She applied again in the spring of 2025 and was thrilled to be accepted.
“The main reason I wanted to join Retail Lab was for the community,” Christine said. “I wanted to find out what doing business in Cabarrus or Rowan County really looked like and to see what others were doing. It opened my eyes to how much support there is for small businesses here.”
Her experience in the program not only connected her with other entrepreneurs but also reshaped her business strategy. Originally planning to open a physical café, Christine realized the rising costs of real estate made it smarter to focus first on growing her wholesale and white-label coffee business.
“I was floored that I won a grant,” she said. “After the boot camp, I shifted gears into wholesale. I stockpiled green coffee before prices went up, which gave me a great start. Now I’m selling to smaller coffee shops that don’t roast their own beans or want to white label.”
That pivot has paid off. Soul Spire Café now operates profitably through wholesale and online sales, allowing Christine to reinvest in the business while planning for her ultimate goal: opening her physical café by fall 2026.
“The Retail Lab gave me a perspective I couldn’t get anywhere else for free,” she said. “It’s not just the information, it’s the people. There’s something special about being together in person and building that community.”
Christine says the experience was a stark contrast to what she was used to. “Where I’m from, everything is red tape and nonsense,” she said. “This was none of that. It was the nicest group of people I’ve ever dealt with in any part of the Charlotte region.”
With her passion for coffee and connection fueling the journey, Soul Spire Café is already bringing creativity and caffeine to life in the community.
For more updates or to explore Soul Spire’s blends, visit www.soulspirecafe.com or follow @soulspirecafe on social media.
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