Coffee shop in the woods: Caffè Driade offers a magical experience in Chapel Hill

Located right off Franklin Street but nestled in the trees, Caffè Driade offers customers globally recognized coffee in a lush green landscape.

The Chapel Hill coffee shop is a sister shop to Open Eye Cafe in Carrboro and the product of Carrboro Coffee Roasters, which is just footsteps away from Caffè Driade. Scott Conary is the owner and president.

Conary, who travels around the world on a regular basis to find the best-tasting coffee, has relationships with farmers in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Ecuador. He also shares the knowledge and sustainable techniques he learns from coffee farmers with other farmers he meets.

"It's the first place I've ever worked that fully feels ethical from the ground up," said Kara Metcalf, manager at Caffè Driade. "I have so much admiration for Scott because he decided to go in and create personal relationships with farmers instead of just purchasing [coffee beans] from some company somewhere."

Its beautiful wooded landscape has made Caffè Driade a destination for photographers and nature enthusiasts ever since it opened in the 1990s. In recent years, it's become a popular place for Instagram posts and TikTok videos.

Caffè Driade backs up to the Bolin Creek Trail, and it's a short walk from the trail to the coffee shop or vice versa. You might even see a chipmunk, deer or owl along the way.

"We work to bring nature to people while protecting it at the same time," Metcalf said. "It's meant to be as much as a natural experience as you can have. The attention to detail combined with the sounds of the happy animals around really contributes to this really magical feeling for our customers."

There is ample outdoor seating under a covered patio or under the shady trees that back up to the coffee shop. Metcalf's favorite time to be on site is in the morning at sunrise, when a mist covers the area.

"It literally feels like a fairytale," she said.

Metcalf has learned to identify native birds since she took the job. Customers love to spot the bright red cardinals, she said, but people really love the chipmunks, which you will almost certainly see if you stay to drink your coffee outdoors.

"We've had an explosion of chipmunks even since we touched up our landscaping," Metcalf said. "They're all over the place. It really speaks to how gentle and wonderful our customers are with nature that all the animals are so friendly ... they will come right up to your feet and walk around the table ... it's my favorite part of working here."

Caffè Driade serves high quality coffees, which are roasted in the building right next door, and a variety of espresso drinks, teas, Italian sodas, milk steamers and more. A loved item on the menu is matcha lattes, which at Caffè Driade come in green, blue and pink.

"Matcha is huge right now," Metcalf said.

The pink matcha is a powdered dragonfruit with a tart and tangy flavor. The blue, made from the butterfly pea flower grown in Southeast Asia, has a more earthy and floral taste, especially with the addition of lavender. The blue and pink matcha lattes are both caffeine-free and gorgeous, so they're a popular choice.

Caffè Driade partnered with Steel String Brewery in Carrboro to create a coffee porter stout, which is also served at the coffee shop for customers who prefer a beer.

There's also a rotating selection of pastries made fresh daily by Durham-based Ninth Street Bakery, like the blueberry cream cheese danish, a current customer favorite.

"Everything we do is as local as possible, and since we can't get coffee locally, we get it straight from the source," Metcalf said.

Conary is on an international panel of coffee experts that judges some of the best coffee in the world annually at the Cup of Excellence international competition. Conary brings these rare, award-winning coffees to Chapel Hill, so one is always available to customers as a pourover at Caffè Driade and Open Eye Cafe.

Caffè Driade is located at 1215-A, E. Franklin St. Hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.