Folk & Potion · Eastern North Carolina
A coffee trailer on a country highway, with a small wooden door cut into the side. You knock. The door opens. A hand offers you a cup. The door closes. The whole thing takes about a minute. The coffee is unusually good.
knock to open
Open at sunrise ✦ Closed on the new moon ✦ If the lantern is lit, we are open
Chapter I
Four small steps. About a minute.
Look for the round door with the brass ring, on the side of the trailer. There is a lantern beside it.
Twice will do. There is a small bell rope beside the door if you would prefer to ring than knock.
Speak the order through the door. There is a slate at hand if you would rather write than speak.
The door opens. A hand offers the cup. You take it, and the door closes. Most of it happens in silence.
Chapter II
Four people work behind the door.
Enhanced & Adaptogen
Robe, glasses, a small slouch from leaning over the espresso machine. Knows the difference between cordyceps and chaga and would absolutely love to tell you. Will hand you the latte either way.
lion's mane, ashwagandha, reishi, the mushroom kingdom
Strong & Honest
Doesn't smile. Doesn't chitchat. Pulls a clean shot every single time. If you order a vanilla latte from the Ogre, the Ogre will pretend not to hear you. Try the Witch →
pour-overs, americanos, cold brew, quad shots
Lattes & Soft Hexes
Steams milk like she's casting something. Will ask if you want a little extra cinnamon. Will remember your usual after the second visit. Will say nothing about your boyfriend.
mochas, honey lattes, salted caramels, lavender
Fruit, Fizz & the Small Folk
Wears a flower crown. Takes the kids' orders very seriously, like they're senators. Makes free puppy-cups for any dog you bring up. Has been known to put extra strawberry in your refresher when you look like you've had a week.
refreshers, italian sodas, hot cocoa, the children
Chapter IV
On how this came to be.
Folk & Potion is a small coffee shop on a country highway in eastern North Carolina. We built it inside a wooden trailer. We took the front off, put a wall there, and cut a small round door into the wall. That is where the coffee comes through.
We made it this way because the best coffee shops in our lives have always been the strange ones. Because waiting at a register, listening for a name to be called across a room, had stopped feeling like the better part of anyone's morning. Because there was a small wooden door in our heads, and we wanted to know what would happen if we made one for real.
Behind the door, four people do the work: a wizard, an ogre, a witch, and a fairy. Sometimes that is four people. Most of the time it is one person, with four ways of working. The math, we have come to feel, is not the point.
We open at sunrise. We close in the late afternoon. We are closed on the new moon. Otherwise, we are here. Come find us.
from behind the wall
Chapter V
Where to look.
where on a country highway in eastern North Carolina. the trailer is wooden. the lantern is by the door.
when open at sunrise. closed by late afternoon. closed entirely on the new moon.
how pull off the road. walk to the door. knock once or twice.
No pin yet. When the trailer parks for good, the map goes here. Until then, watch for the lantern.
If the lantern is lit, we are open.