To ‘bold’-ly go … just down the road ...

ASHEBORO — Bold Coffee Co. will celebrate its fourth anniversary this December in a brand new storefront.

The big question customers had for owner Morgan Dortch when she announced the coffee shop was moving was, “How far?” But Bold has not left downtown Asheboro. It now serves its specialty beverages at 130 S. Church St., Suite 1B, next door to Positano’s Restaurant.

The last week of November, Dortch examined the color of the interior walls. “Still on brand, but you can tell it’s elevated to the next level,” she said while her youngest daughter babbled on her back, husband Michael ran back and forth touching up paint jobs, and her older daughter helped barista Kassidy Salisbury carry boxes inside.

Putting the cart before the llama

While Bold has existed in Asheboro for four years, Dortch’s caffeinated ambitions go back six years to a coffee cart in Virginia. She started her mobile catering gig in 2019, serving weddings and parties around the Hampton Roads region.

Then, in 2020, business dried up. As the COVID-19 virus spread, wedding bookings canceled left and right.

That’s how Dortch came up with the precursor to one of her signatures: The Monster Jar.

“I started collecting and buying mason jars,” she said. “And I started taking orders, doing 32-ounce lattes.”

It was a resounding success. “We were doing 80 jars a night,” Dortch said. “We had a Virginia Beach delivery day. We had a Hampton delivery day, a Portsmouth and a Norfolk delivery day. So, that went crazy.”

In 2021, the Dortches moved to Seagrove, and she seized her chance to have a permanent location. She opened it on 103 N. Fayetteville St. She kept the “party llama” logo from the cart, albeit with what she described as a more “sophisticated” upgrade.

Dortch said she never imagined business would boom the way it did. She explained, “I was thinking, because catering was such a big thing, that, if anything, it’ll be a really small coffee shop, like a hole in the wall kind of thing. It’ll be a great place for my brides to come and taste stuff. And catering will support the rent.”

Search for a new home

The business was great; so were the growing pains. The couple initially thought of renovating the back area of the first floor. However, the state of the building made that unfeasible. And sometimes, the maintenance problems forced them to close for a day to wait on repairs.

“We can’t put all this money into the back room,” Dortch said. “It’s not heated, there’s no AC. There’s no ventilation or anything back there. There’s leaks and stuff that still aren’t fixed.”

The building at 103 North Fayetteville Street was built in 1921 and began as a grocery store. Now owned by Schwarz Properties, it has seen restaurants come and go over the century. Before Bold, it was Mike’s Chicago Dog & More. The old stove hood remained in place above the espresso machine.

But its age was catching up with it. The final straw for Dortch was the constant leaks disrupting business on rainy days. By 2024, she was sizing up 130B S. Church St.

While many families gathered around Thanksgiving dinner, the Dortches spent the holiday painting, moving furniture and installing equipment. Its interior is about 1,600 square feet, double what they had before. Her husband built the new countertop himself.

Dortch said here, they will serve the same experience they first brought to Asheboro in 2021. “I want it to be what it is over there, but more,” she said. “A safe space to go where you can do homework, you can study, you can read, you can drink a cup of coffee. You can meet your friends; you can play games. I hope it’s what Bold was over there. But we have the capacity to do that and more.”

Bold Coffee Co. will keep its current business hours and is open seven days a week.