Owners of a new Little River coffee shop are hoping to create a welcoming spot where customers can feel known.
The veteran-owned coffee shop on Sea Mountain Highway called Be Known Coffee Company is now open for locals and visitors.
“Be Known Coffee is a specialty coffee shop with a mission to cultivate a comfortable atmosphere and a place to be known. We hope for everyone who walks through our doors to feel like they belong and have a space to relax, hang out and build community. We hope to connect those in our community to each other through coffee,” said Hanna Williams, the manager and daughter of the owners.
Ron Williams, an Air Force veteran, and his wife, Christy Williams, own the shop. Ron Williams, an avid coffee drinker, said his favorite item on his menu is the black Ethiopian coffee.
“We have a naturally processed one, so they just laid the cherries out and they sit for about 20 or 21 days, something like that, so you get these beans that still have some of the cherry part left on them, so when you roast them, you get this beautiful blueberry flavor and dark chocolate,” Ron Williams said. “So that's the first thing I'd grab. And then if I want something fancier, it's going to be a vanilla latte.”
Christy Williams is actually not a coffee lover, but she said there are still multiple items on their menu that she enjoys like the organic teas.
“Although I don't like coffee, I do like the frappuccinos because you get just a little bit of the coffee taste. I like the caramel, the chocolate, the white chocolate. I kind of like them all,” she said.
The Williams’ said they hope for their shop, with its multiple comfortable couches and other seating options, to be a place where people living in Little River, North Myrtle Beach, Loris, Longs and even North Carolina can come to grow community values and connect with one another.
“We’re right down the street from the [North Myrtle Beach High] school, so we really wanted to be flexible–somebody can come here and have this quiet space to sit and study if they want, but there's also community space,” Hanna Williams said.
Be Known Coffee is also close to McLeod Health Seacoast Hospital and a few other schools.
“We want to not only create community in this space, but also make sure that we're connecting back to the people that we're buying the coffee from. We roast our own coffee in house, but we wanna make sure that we’re really connecting to the farmers and making sure that we're paying fair wages so that farmers are able to make ends meet for their families,” Hanna Williams said.
The shop also has a variety of pastries such as muffins and New York-style bagels from Bagel Dock Cafe in Calabash, North Carolina.
“Christy asked me what I want to call it and I said, ‘I don't know,’ and at that point, we were actually sitting at my mother's church in Pennsylvania and the pastor at the end of the service said, ‘Hey, come out and have some coffee and donuts and spend some time with us and be known,’ and I said, ‘That’s it. That fits,’” Ron Williams said. “I wanted to create a space for people to come together to gather. I just felt like, kind of post-COVID, that we've forgotten how to be neighbors and friends, so I just wanted to create a place where folks could come together and start to build relationships again.”
Though the shop is already open, the Little River Chamber of Commerce is hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony at 9 a.m. Oct. 11. There will be free drip coffee from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 20% off all menu items for the entire day.
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