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Espresso Royale Cafe: More Than Just Your Average Cup of Joe

by Rachel Bailey
05/24/2008

Athens is a town known for a loyalty to locally owned and operated businesses, a town where incoming freshman are regaled during orientation with stories of bricks being thrown through Starbucks’ windows for months after the store opened downtown.

So why is Espresso Royale Cafe, a chain store located at 297 E. Broad St., such a popular spot for students and locals to get their coffee fix or even hang out for an all-day study session?

The answer may lie in what the company’s website calls its “people driven philosophy.” Rather than having to comply with a standardized look and feel that fits the restaurant’s brand image, each ERC location is given the autonomy to come up with an identity of its own.

“I went to an ERC in Boston, and it was really different from the one here,” said Adam Meyerson, a professional cyclist based in Athens and an Espresso Royale regular.

The company’s open-minded attitude toward their brand identity leaves plenty of room to showcase local goods. Athens’ branch boasts bread, scones and vegan cookies from our very own Luna bakery, bagels from Zim’s Bagel Bakery in the Beechwood shopping center, and a wide array of breads, dessert bars and sandwiches made in-house at the cafe.

Works on display from area artists round out ERC’s local-friendly feel. Paintings and other work by Athens-area residents often hang above patrons as they sip their cappuccinos. Katie Vinneau, who works both at Espresso Royale and the University of Georgia’s art history department, spends some of her time seeking out work to showcase. The artists she chooses to feature are exposed to a potential buyer every time a customer walks in the door.

However, this snazzy interior and coziness with the local community are moot if a company can’t follow through with a product people want to buy. Fortunately for ERC, its variety of hot teas, cold drinks and coffee products ranging from a rotating roster of classic cuppa’ joe varietals to flavored lattes seems to hit the spot for Athenians.

“I come here a lot to study,” said Katie Dotson, a third-year social work major at UGA, “it’s usually quiet, and it’s the only place in town where I can get a Yerba Mate latte.”

Espresso Royale Cafe stands as an example for how other chains may compete in downtown Athens’ locally-dominated market: offer high-quality goods and show an appreciation for how area people and businesses can contribute to the overall success of a store.