Turning Coffee Into Connection

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Our guests are Jim and Kim Fry, the somewhat new owners of Coffee on Raiford and downtown Selma. We talked to them about why they moved to Johnston County? Why they decided to buy a coffee shop that had already been there for five years?

Their vision for the future of Coffee on Raiford and some of the many great festivals, events, and businesses that are around them in downtown Selma. If you’re interested in Selma or just interested in lots of small businesses, or you just love coffee, listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of [00:01:00] Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on the today’s episode, we have Jim and Kim Fry, the somewhat new owners of Coffee on Raiford at Downtown Selma, North Carolina. We’re gonna talk to them a little bit about their time in the military. Why they came to Johnston County, when they came to Johnston County and why they bought Coffee on Raiford about a year ago from the original owners. ‘Cause everybody knows Coffee on Raiford. Hass probably been there about five or six years. And we’re gonna talk a little bit about their vision for this coffee shop. We’re gonna talk a little bit about downtown Selma and some of the businesses are there and activate Selma, which is one of my favorite groups in Johnston County.

But before we get to that, I would like to ask you to like follow or subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on Apple, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Spotify, or any of the other social media channels. The Best of Johnston County [00:02:00] Podcast, The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday and has now for about two and a half years.

So go ahead and listen to some of our previous episodes. We’ve had the vast majority of the county commissioners, we’ve had lots of great local business people. Most of the information on this about the small businesses and community events like. Backpack Buddies at Harbor and stuff like that are what we would call sort of evergreen.

So while we may have recorded them a year, year and a half ago, the information is still just as relevant today as it was then. So go back and listen to some of those. I think you will find it interesting. Welcome, Jim and Kim. Y’all should not have done that because I’m, I’m, I’m like Jim and Kim. I mean, we could have done Michael and Stacy, but No, we had to do Jim and Kim.

So anyway, welcome, welcome to the show. Tell the audience who you are, what you do.

Jim Fry: Okay. You wanna go first?

Kim Fry: Yeah, go ahead.

Jim Fry: Alright. So, Jim Fry and I currently have a corporate job, but even more fun is we recently purchased a coffee shop about a year ago in downtown Selma. And yeah, we’re just trying to [00:03:00] make it successful and trying to help build the community and impact the community as well. That’s one of the biggest things in our hearts, you know? And yeah, we’re just getting started. I don’t know what else. Well, I mean, introductory,

Jonathan Breeden: well, let’s start, I mean, where’d you grow up? Where are you from?

Jim Fry: So, I was born in Germany. I was an Army brat. I moved around my whole life. Went to 13 different schools before college. I hated it when I was younger because you know, you’re breaking away from all your friends. And so I used to cry and scream and, but then over time I got more adaptable and then pretty much wherever you go is home.

And, and I was able to really adapt and connect quickly and became like the most friendliest in high school, you know?

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. That’s awesome.

Jim Fry: And and then I went into the service myself. My dad, I was an army brat. I was third generation, actually. My granddaddy was World War II. My dad was Vietnam and, now they were both World War II and then then I was in the service, went to West Point, graduated in 92.

And yeah. And then my original goal was to be an Army astronaut. That’s what I was pursuing. But the Lord had other plans kind of redirected me and, so

Jonathan Breeden: how long were you in the military

Kim Fry: direction?

Jonathan Breeden: [00:04:00] Okay.

Jim Fry: Best thing I got outta the army, so,

Jonathan Breeden: okay, I got you. So, I mean, I mean, when did you get outta the army?

Jim Fry: So, I was actually out in 90 97, no, nine two is when I graduated. Yeah, 97. Okay. And actually what happened was, I, I actually had an injury. I was, I was pretty much handicapped or repetitive bone trauma, got medically boarded out. What was amazing though is five months after I got out I went up for prayer on a Wednesday night service in my church in Texas.

And I didn’t feel anything. But the next morning when I woke up, my foot pain was gone, my foot was realigned, and I ran for the first time in a year, the Lord completely healed me, and if it wasn’t for that, I would’ve been handicapped. So it was a whole turning point, you know?

Jonathan Breeden: Man, that’s wild.

Jim Fry: Yeah. I told the doctors what happened.

They looked at me like I was crazy and said, let’s take some tests and, and everything had changed.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. So where are you from?

Kim Fry: So I’m originally from Kansas. And went to Kansas State. Go Wildcats,

Jonathan Breeden: Kansas. Oh yeah. The Wildcats. Manhattan, Kansas.

Kim Fry: Manhattan, Kansas.

Jonathan Breeden: Three hours from nowhere. I mean, it’s in the middle of nowhere I think.

You go and you drive for three hours and you see nothing and then you come to Manhattan.

Kim Fry: Yep. You’re there. Yep.

Jim Fry: I see.

Kim Fry: You’re right. [00:05:00] But so once I ROTC grad, I swore I would never date to West Pointer. And then I went and married to West Pointer, but Okay. I was enlisted in the Army.

Jim Fry: Never seen, never.

Kim Fry: Yeah, never say never. I was in the Kansas Army National Guard as a mechanic. Then as I was in college, I went through the ROTC program, became an engineer officer. So I did construction for the, the Army and got to go to several different places. Cuba, Bosnia wonderful. I was a, the field ordering officer in Bosnia, so that meant I got to go shopping while I was over here.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, okay. Well that’s cool.

Kim Fry: Which actually was my first exposure to coffee outside of the US because they like to schmooze you when you’re over there buying for the, the army. That was my first exposure to Turkish coffee. And if you’ve ever had Turkish coffee, have you ever had Turkish coffee?

Jonathan Breeden: I don’t drink coffee, but I have been to Turkey.

Kim Fry: What? Okay.

Jonathan Breeden: But I didn’t drink coffee.

Kim Fry: Right. So you don’t drink the bottom of the coffee is what you don’t drink.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Kim Fry: You drink? Yeah. Be like a sunup

Jim Fry: or something.

Kim Fry: Yeah. And so that was my first [00:06:00] exposure to the coffee there. My dad sold coffee my entire childhood, so I’ve always been exposed to coffee. So, yeah, we met in the Army and then we got out in 99.

Seven. Seven. Yeah. Yep. Right when we got married, we both got out and,

Jim Fry: and, and over the years from a corporate travel perspective, I’ve had a chance also to like, travel internationally quite a bit. And that’s when you know, I really like coffee a lot too.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jim Fry: And we got exposure. I got exposure to different coffees just like she did.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jim Fry: And but you have to be careful because sometimes overseas coffee is really small quantity, but super strong. And one time. I was traveling for work and I was in a working meeting during lunch and my collar started going like, and my, my throat, my, my heart started racing and I didn’t know what was going on and I asked the guy next to me, I was like.

You know, Hey, something’s wrong with me. And he knew being an American, I was in the Netherlands at the time. He said, well, did you have any coffee? I said, yeah. And he said, how many cups did you have? I said, well, I only had six. Because they’re like this big. They’re like, he’s like, no, no, no. You don’t do [00:07:00] that with our coffee.

And so that’s what it was.

Jonathan Breeden: So what brought y’all to Johnston County? When and how did you get here?

Kim Fry: So we both got out of Fort Hood. We stayed in Texas for a few years, and then the week of nine 11. We actually moved to Greenville, North Carolina ’cause Jim got a job working at DSM in Greenville and so we were in Greenville for 16 years and then about 10 years ago we moved to Johnston County. We were looking for property and found 40 acres right outside of Selma. And we knew that was where the Lord was calling us to go to. And so we took a leap of faith and bought the 40 acres and.

Jim Fry: And she’s leaving out a lot of details too.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: Cool.

Jonathan Breeden: So you came here to buy land people do that.

Kim Fry: You don’t have like three hours to do this, so.

Jonathan Breeden: I do not.

Jim Fry: No, no. I mean, but it was really, ’cause the Lord put a desire in our heart to impact families and community and really use property and any means we can to really just bring his love and just impact the community and help build [00:08:00] community. And the Lord said to get our house ready to sell in Greenville. So we literally packed it up into pods and got down to where there was nothing and said we prayed. Okay, we obeyed.

And then she got this random unsolicited email of this place in Selma. I didn’t even know there was a Selma, to be honest.

My memo was from Selma, Alabama, you know?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jim Fry: So I knew that Selma.

Kim Fry: And it’s technically closer to micro than it is to some, you know.

Jim Fry: That’s Selma.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Jim Fry: So, and that’s what brought us out here.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So did you keep working in Greenville?

Jim Fry: No, I have a global role. I work for a pharmaceutical company. I’ve changed companies since we moved here.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jim Fry: I was trying to decrease travel ’cause I was working in 10 countries plus Puerto Rico.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jim Fry: And and my current company is in Germany and here. But even though the footprint shrank, my travel still hasn’t decreased as much.

Jonathan Breeden: So you still travel a little bit for work?

Kim Fry: So I run.

Jim Fry: Yeah. So she’s the queen. of the

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. I gotcha.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: We’re in support. Yeah, I’m in support and

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Kim Fry: He does the dirty jobs, the dirty, he’s micro, you know.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that’s cool. So when was the first time y’all went to coffee on Raiford? I know you bought it, but when was the first time you went there?

Jim Fry: We [00:09:00] were customers for five years.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. The whole time it was open, right?

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: I really, we became good friends with.

Kim Fry: Jim knew all the baristas by name, so.

Jim Fry: Yeah.

Kim Fry: He was responsible Yeah.

Jim Fry: Jeff and Zena, they’re amazing. Like, and we still have the picture on the wall honoring our founders, you know, like Jeff and Zena, the brother and sister, and then, yeah, and I like coffee.

I like the environment. It’s just a great place because people go there and hang out. Like you remember the TV show Cheers. It’s kind of like that, where people know each other’s like a family model environment, you know? Yeah. And that’s what we desire.

Kim Fry: Where everybody knows your name.

Jim Fry: You know, and then when we heard about the opportunity. You know, she heard about it first and she called me up and I’m usually one, I like to pray and really be careful and I’m, and sometimes I have fear kind of get in the way about taking large leaps, you know, but this time when we heard about it just was like we knew, okay, this is awesome.

This is the chance.

Kim Fry: Let me unpack that a little bit. I’m usually six months to a year to make a decision. And when I called ’em about the coffee shop, I was like. Jeff and Zena are thinking about selling the coffee shop. ’cause they had already talked about possibly selling it, but it [00:10:00] wasn’t gonna be for a couple years. And so I was like, Hey, what do you think? He called me back in about 10, 15 minutes. He’s like, I think we should go for it, so.

Jim Fry: She was like, what?

Kim Fry: I like, okay,

Jonathan Breeden: so do y’all own the building? Who owns the building?

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: You own the building, so.

Kim Fry: Yeah, we owned the building and the business.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, so they were sold together?

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I didn’t know that. I knew who owned the building.

Kim Fry: Well, they were sold together, but separately.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jim Fry: Two transactions.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Two transactions with overall offering.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So you.

Kim Fry: But they’re under different business names, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. But so you do own the building and now you own the.

Kim Fry: Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Own the restaurant. Okay. So, what, I guess you do your due diligence. You look at the books and all that before you bought it?

Kim Fry: Yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. You kind of knew what you kind of knew and

Jim Fry: a lot prayer. A lot of prayer too. And seeking more.

Kim Fry: Well, and we knew what we were getting into and we knew that. Zena was a, she’s a hard worker, so I knew I had big shoes to fill and the, the biggest shoes to fill was, ’cause we have a lot of regulars that come in there and they were afraid, you know, ’cause they don’t know me from Adam and [00:11:00] they, you know, they were afraid that I was gonna come in and make all these huge changes.

And so I, Zena was sweet and she, for the. Probably January, February and March before we took over. She told me to come in as much as I needed to kind of learn how she does things and learn the ropes and, which was good because I was able to, you know, meet with all the regulars and get to know their drinks, get to know them, and reassure them that I’m not gonna change.

Jim Fry: Like the overall

Kim Fry: dynamic. It’s gonna pretty, it’s pretty gonna stay the same Now. I did change the coffee on them, but they didn’t, I don’t think they knew until after I said something. Well, she’s good. I only changed it to organic coffee, but I can’s, she’s big into organic. Yeah. I kept the roaster and everything and I kept the same.

Like if it’s a dark roast, it’s a dark roast, you know? But it, I moved it over to organic ’cause I’m one of those that. If I won’t drink it, I’m not gonna serve it, so,

Jonathan Breeden: okay. Yeah, I got you. Yeah. So you buy this restaurant in March of 25?

Kim Fry: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: And did you, I mean, you said your plan was not really to change it, but you [00:12:00] did make some changes for the better, I would say.

So talk about what those were and how y’all went about doing that other than just changing the coffee.

Kim Fry: So my degree from Kansas State is production operations management, which means it’s kind of like the business side of an industrial engineer. So you look at the process and you want things to run effectively, efficiently. So when I went in, there were a few things that I wanted to tweak because I knew that if I were to tweak some things that it might work a little bit quicker, and so I did make a few of those kind of changes.

And then obviously I changed the to organic coffee and then aesthetically I didn’t change anything. For at least the first six months.

Jim Fry: Yeah. Maybe even like 10. Well, 10 you started small adjustments.

Kim Fry: Yeah. And I would make small little incremental changes because I didn’t wanna freak out too many customers when they come in. So this last change that I made, it was huge.

Jim Fry: Remodeling.

Kim Fry: It was a huge change.

Jim Fry: But part of that process though, we engaged a lot of [00:13:00] the customers and got feedback and asked questions even like on the colors.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: Changes, so she was sharing a lot of the vision of here’s what we’re thinking and what do you guys think?

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: So that it wouldn’t be suddenly.

Kim Fry: Yeah. They come in.

Jim Fry: It looks like a whole brand new place and everybody freaks out, you know?

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I got you. So, what kind of coffees do you have there? You have?

Kim Fry: So we have everything from Drip to, on the espresso side, we have cortado, flat whites, lattes, cappuccinos. We have frappes, we have smoothies, we have matcha, we have ceremonial matcha, which is different than just the other matcha.

Jim Fry: It’s pretty cool.

Kim Fry: We have Italian sodas.

Jim Fry: Dirty soda.

Kim Fry: We had dirty sodas. And.

Jonathan Breeden: What is a dirty soda?

Jim Fry: You basically put some dirt in it. No, just kidding

Kim Fry: You take syrup and you put it in. So like for instance, take a mountain dew, you add raspberry.

Jim Fry: Yeah. Spike it.

Kim Fry: And pineapple or something. And then.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Kim Fry: Throw a little bit of either coconut milk or some half and half on top, or you don’t have to have the cream. And that’s what kind of makes it a dirty sodas.

Jim Fry: And I was saying that, ’cause that name’s always [00:14:00] thrown me for a loop. Like

Jonathan Breeden: I didn’t know what it was I sold on your website, so I thought I would ask.

Kim Fry: Oh, and we also have chai and then we also have hot tea and then iced tea, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And what do you have for food?

Kim Fry: So for food right now we have Mickey’s Bakery. They bring in Long John’s and a few of their other items. We have the Violet cafe. She’s a local caterer that she brings in croissants and then, ham and cheese croissants, chocolate croissants.

Jim Fry: Pastry.

Kim Fry: We have, yeah, pastry kind of things. We do have some chicken salad. We’re also trying to right now, because, you know, January, February, March are kind of our slower months. And because our previous cater we stopped using in December. So we’re trying to figure out what’s working.

So that’s gonna actually be tweaked a little bit for the, probably in the next probably month. We’re still trying to work on what is a good menu and what’s gonna stay, what’s not gonna stay, kind of thing.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay because you don’t have a kitchen, so all the food’s [00:15:00] being brought in.

Kim Fry: Yeah, everything.

Jonathan Breeden: And then you’re sort of consigning it, I guess. You buy it from the bakery. Bakery and you sell it.

Kim Fry: And so if I don’t sell. I don’t make money.

Jonathan Breeden: You don’t make any money. Right. I gotcha.

Kim Fry: Yeah. And then, you know, we’ve had to pivot ’cause there’s been a couple other shops downtown that now are selling coffee and stuff, which you know, they, which is fine, but you know, because I don’t have the flexibility with not having a kitchen, so I’m kind of having to stay in my lane on.

Okay. What can I provide for everybody? But Mickey’s has been a great Mickey’s pastry out of Goldsboro. They’ve been great also. And then my caterer Lynette, she’s been fabulous too, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that’s great. That’s great.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: And you’re [00:16:00] open seven days a week?

Kim Fry: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: A lot of hours for a small coffee shop.

Kim Fry: Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, I mean, you’re open like 6:00 AM to 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM most days.

Kim Fry: Yep. Yep.

Jonathan Breeden: So how do you staff that?

Kim Fry: Very carefully. Yeah.

Jim Fry: No, actually.

Kim Fry: that’s been the challenge. A little bit of a challenge. We now, I’ve built enough of a team that pretty much our hours are, I’ve got enough staff for that now ’cause I’ve built I think we have eight employees now.

Jim Fry: Yeah. And, and, and that’s been part of the strategy too, because there’s a difference between being. As you, as you know, like self-employed versus business owner, self-employed, you’re just trading time for money and you’re bound to it. And sometimes you have to start that way anyway, right?

So it’s always heavier in the first part. But our desire was to continue to build a strong team. And we see it also as an opportunity to help some younger kids, you know, young, younger. People that are coming into the workforce, we want to pour into them, help them grow hopefully teach them some things.

She mentioned she does had a degree in production operations. I do operational excellence and that like is a passion of [00:17:00] mine in the corporate world. So any, any way we can impart those kind of skills to young up and coming people, it’s gonna help them on their career paths too. But building a team like that has allowed her to be able to get, not always have to be behind the counter, but then focus on what else can we do to keep driving and strengthening the business, you know?

Kim Fry: And, and also when I’m in there, you know, I’m, I call myself the JV team, so like if they get backed up and we get a mad rush, I’m there to support that backed up.

But it’s also been great because. The relationship part of when customers do come in. We’ve had so many, so many amazing connections with customers that nine. ’cause you know, we’re right off of 95, so we get a lot of traffic off of 95. And that has been the best thing ever because we’ve been able to meet people that are traveling from New York to Florida, or Florida to New York or

Jim Fry: Quebec.

Kim Fry: Yeah. Or we’ve had people come in from, you know, Europe that. Just traveling around. And so we’ve been able to make those connections. And we had one cool thing [00:18:00] is I had an Italian guy come in and he’s like, can you make me a, you know, I think it was a Dubio or Restreto, I can’t remember which, which is basically a short espresso.

Jim Fry: That’s good.

Kim Fry: And so, I was like, yeah, sure, I can totally do that for you. And he said it was the best coffee he’s had in the United States

Jim Fry: and he’d been traveling for about a month, like

Kim Fry: throughout the us. He’s like, this is the best coffee. Like I’ve reached the pinnacle.

Jonathan Breeden: That’s awesome. That’s awesome.

Kim Fry: So that’s been amazing. And, and we’ve just been able to just be able to, to be, we want our place to feel like you’re. You’re at home. And we want that connection. We want that because we live in a world of social media and we don’t have that social interaction with each other anymore.

And we want our place to feel like a peace that when you walk in the door, you feel peace, right? And that you feel like, oh, I can just sit and relax and, you know, if I have to work, I can work. You know, we start up conversations. I had another couple come in and we had a conversation for an hour and I mean that was probably one of the best Google reviews that I [00:19:00] ever had.

If you go on my Google reviews and it, but it’s just that human connection. It’s just making, you know, conversation and, and we’re just doing it over a cup of coffee and I’m kind of a bougie coffee drink. So when you get me started talking about coffee, we might be here for a Okay. Alright. So whatever you do, don’t get me started on coffee, but,

Jonathan Breeden: okay.

Alright. You just have no kidding. Well, I, I mean, I mean, if you’re gonna be a owner, a coffee store, probably a good idea. I don’t drink coffee, so this is I’m always learning something new.

Kim Fry: Yeah. Well, and I’ve also trained the staff too, the baristas. So they’re

Jim Fry: educated ’em

Kim Fry: like a lot d Yeah. Ifferent educated them.

So when people do come in and they ask for something, they’re like, oh, I remember what Kim said about that. And so they’re able to educate the customer and that’s, that’s part of our job as a barista. Yeah, we make coffee, but we need to understand the, the process behind it and what’s involved with it and what goes into it.

And they all get that. And so they know that that’s my passion. So. They’ve kind of, they’ve stepped up [00:20:00] and, you know, they’re, they can, you can ask ’em questions and they can actually answer. Right.

Jonathan Breeden: And so y’all do some catering to, for business events? Yep. Churches, stuff like that. I know you’re not doing individual delivery, but you do do catering.

You offer event space in your place people can rent. How many people can have a meeting there?

Jim Fry: Well, it’s currently we’re not renting. It’s basically a limit on the time.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: So it can be used, like, can sign up, you know.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, okay.

Kim Fry: And you can have about eight people can sit in the back.

Jim Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Kim Fry: And it’s just, you know, very informal, casual. And it’s free and it’s for two hours. And like we have a men’s bible study that meets there every Wednesday morning. And so we have a lot of those groups that kind of meet back there.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Kim Fry: So it’s been kind of nice.

Jim Fry: A cool thing to me too is like I said before, we really wanna bring God’s love to the community too. We’ve got a prayer board on the wall. It started out where people just were putting all kinds of motivational comments on it.

Kim Fry: Encouragement.

Jim Fry: Yep. And which is pretty neat ’cause it reflects the people you know. And but our intent with that is we’re gonna actually put structured prayer to [00:21:00] just pray for people behind it. So when they put a prayer request, we’ll move it to a Pray for section. And ’cause we’ve been able to have some really neat engagements with people to encourage them in some low places in life and even travelers coming through.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: Where you could see that was a touch. They really needed to experience encouragement, you know.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that’s great. That’s great. I mean, it’s good if y’all to try to do that. Let’s talk a little bit about Activate Selma. Y’all are pretty involved with that. We’ve had,

Kim Fry: yeah

Jonathan Breeden: Call Pernell on the podcast.

Kim Fry: And Chandler.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Chandler’s is great. So, for the people that don’t listen to every podcast what is Activate Selma and what has been y’all’s role with it?

Kim Fry: So Activate Selma is businesses, local businesses within Selma, and also any community, any person that lives in the community. We get together once a week and the motto is, we don’t complain. We take action. And so we try to see if there’s a gap or there’s a need within the community, and we try to see how we can support that and fill that gap.

And so, it’s been amazing to be a part of it [00:22:00] because the people of Activate Selma are really great people and they wanna see Selma grow and they wanna see Selma become a tight knit community. And so like, you know, which I’m sure you know, Rocking on Raiford is the third Thursday of every month.

We start in April and I think we’re going through September of this year. And it’s the concert series that it’s either gonna be on the north side of Raiford Street or on the south side. And it’s a free concert to come out. I think we start at six or 6:30 PM and it’s just an opportunity for the community to come together. And

Jim Fry: there’s food trucks, there’s act, you know, different things are out. And block the streets off so everybody can walk in the streets.

Kim Fry: And now, you know, we have so many restaurants in downtown Selma, which is amazing. So, you know, we have Harvard Yard and they do breakfast through lunch and dinner.

Then there’s Altas, they have breakfast and lunch. Asian Eatery has lunch and dinner pixie does has lunch. And then hibachi Grill, they have lunch and dinner. So, [00:23:00] and then of course, you know, we had the alley bar and quantum toad. They’re the two bars that, that are down on the south side. So we have a lot of restaurants down there now and oh, and then we also have ice cream for dessert.

So. Mike’s need with old fashioned ice cream. They’re open in the it’s,

Jim Fry: it’s the best ice cream.

Jonathan Breeden: No, it really is. I, it really is. Old fashioned Ice cream is very good. I mean, I mean, I’m still a little partial, sunny Skies and Andrew, but old fashioned ice cream and then the, then the, he does the, not candy, corn, the,

Kim Fry: oh, the popcorn.

Jonathan Breeden: The popcorn, yeah. Oh my goodness.

Jim Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness. The popcorn is phenomenal

Jim Fry: because like, I’m known in my family for like sweets and ice cream is kind of one of my, they call it a weakness. I, I consider it a strength, you know? Yeah. But and because of my global travels, I’ve been able to have. Gelato and ice cream all over the world.

And I’m telling you, I’m not exaggerating the pistachio ice cream in Michael’s place. I told him too. The only place that came close to it was in Switzerland. It was a small place in Switzerland off the beaten path. And but it, it’s really good. And he uses like local [00:24:00] farms for the base and everything.

Yeah. Which is what we like to do is go, go local as much.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. I’ve had, I’ve had his ice cream, I’ve had his popcorns. Yeah, it’s, it’s really good. And it’s great. It’s great that. Selma is downtown Selma’s doing so? Well, you know, you know, we’ve had Barry Woodard on this podcast. We’re talking about all the great things going on in downtown Clayton Johnston County’s downtown’s.

You know, we’ve talked about downtown Benson on this podcast. Yeah. I mean, most of the towns of Johnston County, the downtowns are doing well. They, they’re dynamic there. There’s people, you know, like, like if you go to downtown Selma now on a Friday, Saturday night. There’s people walking around, like it’s not, it’s not a ghost town.

Yeah. It’s not like it used to be. Yeah. And that’s great. I mean, you know, I know y’all close at six, but like, well, there’s stuff going on all night.

Kim Fry: Well, well we, and we’ve talked about even this summer Yeah. Of extending our Friday and Saturday night. Yeah. The hours. Hours. So that might be an opportunity that may come available. Just saying up there.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. I got you. So what are y’all, I mean, what other changes are y’all looking maybe to do? I know [00:25:00] you’re in the middle of kind of a remodel. I mean, I think what y’all have done is kind of neat there, but what other things would people see y’all doing here in the next 12 months?

Kim Fry: So, some of the activities that we have going on, because I love coffee is, I’m gonna be doing probably four week course that will be in the evening time that people can sign up for, to take those courses.

Jonathan Breeden: To teach what?

Kim Fry: To teach about coffee, so.

Jonathan Breeden: Like how to make it like the history of it?

Jim Fry: Yep.

Kim Fry: Everything.

Jim Fry: All the above, all equipment. History, beans.

Kim Fry: Yeah. And because.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Kim Fry: There’s so much to coffee that people, I mean, ’cause you’ve got pour overs, you’ve got drip coffee, you’ve got vacuum coffee makers, which probably, you don’t have a clue what that is. I mean, yeah, I mean, you got espresso. I mean, there’s so much to coffee. There’s Turkish coffee, there’s Vietnamese coffee. That’s made completely different.

Jim Fry: It makes a difference too. It does make a difference on the end product. Like, I mean, it might sound like yeah, you know, well.

Jonathan Breeden: Where the beans come from make a big difference.

Kim Fry: They do.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, you’re absolutely right about that. The beans where the beans come from. Even different countries in South [00:26:00] America.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Different latitudes will change what the be tastes like and stuff like that.

Jim Fry: And I do like in the work, in my corporate job, I over the years, I do a Lean Six Sigma. I dunno if you’re familiar with that, but it’s a professional certification. I got a black belt back in 2002 and there’s a concept called Six Sigma, which is where you perfect the process and there’s so many variables in the coffee process that can make it go good or bad.

Kim Fry: Well, that’s like I was talking to somebody today. You can have one bean and depending on how you grind that bean and how you brew that bean, you get a totally different flavor.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Kim Fry: So, like I can use the same bean in my espresso machine and get a pull of a shot that is like intense and it’s got some punch to it, but I can grind it at different, you know, ground size and put it in a drip coffee. And it has a completely another different, like, you know, flavors come out of it.

So that’s kind of what the class is gonna be, is about that. And because. I have everything under the sun for coffee in the [00:27:00] house to be able to show people there’s different ways of making it. So.

Jim Fry: And we have had some bad coffee out there too.

Jonathan Breeden: I know. I

Kim Fry: understand. Not in our shop. Not in our shop.

Jonathan Breeden: I got,

Jim Fry: oh my goodness.

Jonathan Breeden: So, how can people reach out to y’all, tell people where you are? Website,

Jim Fry: before we answer that, can I mention too, you ask what else is coming?

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah.

Jim Fry: A couple other things that we’re thinking about and is basically reaching out to see if we can provide services to, to companies like basically cater to for business meetings.

That’s one other thing we’re, we’re gonna plan on taking action on, and then allowing online ordering. ’cause right now we, yeah, that’s true. We don’t allow the online ordering. We don’t have a system for it, but we’re working on putting that in place. So if somebody needs to do like a drive by and we just wanna grab one quickly, we can make it more efficient for them for that.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Cool. Yeah. So cool. So, so tell people where you are, how they can reach out, learn about you.

Kim Fry: We’re at 123 North Raiford Street in Selma. You can reach out to us through Instagram. Obviously it’s Coffee on Raiford, on Instagram, Coffee on Raiford. Facebook, we even have a TikTok, [00:28:00] which yeah, learning about that, right?

But it’s different. So on TikTok it’s coffee.on.raiford. So there’s two underscores under, yeah, because Jeff and Zena had the old one, and that one is no longer in use, so I had to kind of underscore things.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and, and, and Raiford is RAI?

Kim Fry: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: FORD. We have the town of Raeford, R-A-E-F-O-R-D, here in North Carolina. Not too far from here. But Raiford is R-A-I-F-O-R-D. And Raiford is really the main street, at least in my mind of Selma.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So, it’s, it’s easy to, it’s easy to find. And it’s historic downtown Selma, which is, which is a, which is a great place. Very walkable, very safe, lots of lots of people, lots of things going on.

Now it is not the Selma of 15 years ago.

Kim Fry: Yes.

Jim Fry: No.

Jonathan Breeden: If you’ve not been, you gotta go. You wouldn’t believe it.

Kim Fry: Yeah. Agree. So agreed.

Jonathan Breeden: The last question we’ll ask everybody is. What do [00:29:00] you love most about Johnston County?

Kim Fry: Go ahead.

Jim Fry: I love the people Yeah. And the country aspect of it.

Kim Fry: Yeah.

Jim Fry: Which I’ve been hoping we stay country. That’s important ’cause it’s been growing a lot, but we moved for the first time out in the country and we just love it. And, but the people, the people are great.

Kim Fry: The people. Yeah.

Jim Fry: It’s just amazing. Yeah.

Kim Fry: You know, and The Best Podcast.

Jonathan Breeden: I dunno about this. I dunno about that. But anyway there’s some other good Johnston County podcast other than this one, but anyway.

Well, cool. We’d like to thank Jim and Kim Fry for being our guest on The Best of Johnston County Podcast this week. Go visit them Coffee on Raiford in downtown Selma, along with some of the other businesses in downtown Selma. Go to one of the concerts. They have a lot of great beach music bands and different stuff.

Third Thursday coming up, starting in April, going all the way through September. It’s a tremendous concert series. I’ve been to one and at at a very nice time. So anyway, as we mentioned earlier, please like, follow, and subscribe this podcast wherever you’re seeing it. Also, leave us a five star review down below.

Tag us in your Instagram story as Best of [00:30:00] Johnston County. Till next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.