Quick Facts about Uptown Coffee Company
Uptown Coffee Company is the only locally-owned coffee shop in Anson County with two locations: 114 W. Wade St. in Wadesboro and on the campus of South Piedmont Community College in Polkton.
Uptown Coffee Company was featured in a February edition of “Hometown Chronicles USA,” a YouTube program exploring the unique characters of small towns across America.
Hometown Chronicles started in 2023 and is hosted by historians Frederick Murphy and Kyle Scharf.
Corey Lowery recalls as a child going shopping with his parents to uptown Wadesboro when it was a thriving business district. Now at age 25, he is the owner of Uptown Coffee Company, one of a small fraction of businesses in uptown.
Uptown Coffee resides in a row of businesses on the north side of Wade Street that dates back to the early 1900’s.
In the episode, Lowery and host Murphy talk about the nostalgia of the building and how it was once abandoned, but today is occupied by Uptown Coffee Company.
Of the nearly 40,000 coffee shops in America, less than one percent are owned by African Americans, according to Statista and Noire Pack, making Anson County distinctive in having two locations that are Black owned.
Lowery first started working at the coffee shop in 2021 when it was called Speckled Paw. He was hired as a manager, promoted to procure manager a year later and by 2023, he took over ownership and renamed the coffee shop.
Uptown Coffee Company sells a variety of hot and cold coffee drinks, smoothies, refreshers, ice cream and homemade pastries.
Uptown Coffee Company is also a gathering spot in the center of uptown. It offers rooms for meeting spaces and hosts live music events and worship services.