Crema Coffee to be Changing Hands

 

Crema Coffee Bar will be changing ownership in the next several weeks as Tiffany Crist, who has grown and nurtured this gathering place for the past ten years, will be selling to a new entrepreneur, Madeline Fontana by the end of June.

 

Tiffany notes, "The past ten years at Crema have been a highlight of my life and I am not sure I will ever be able to do justice to this experience with words.  I love my team, my customers, and coffee. I am going to be taking a job with Emmanuel Baptist School that will allow me both to try new challenges and have more time to devote to my family.” 

 

Madeline Fontana, who will be Crema's new owner, is currently a senior business major at Coker. She is currently serving as Coker University’s community engagement coordinator.  In this position she has been able to learn a great deal about the dynamics of Hartsville.  She was recruited to Coker from Colorado Springs, CO to play lacrosse for the Coker Ladies Lacrosse team. She was recently captain of that team. “During my time in Hartsville I have come to love this town, this community, and Coker,” she says.

 

“When Tiffany told me she was considering selling Crema I saw that as “an opportunity of a lifetime,” Madeline says.  “I have dreamed of an opportunity like this since I was a young girl  going to work with my dad every day at our family’s golf course World Golf and Sand Creek in Colorado Springs. I grew up loving the intentionality and involvement of customer service from the golf courses fairway grill and pub specifically, from learning the barista role and being one of the only trusted employees to be a barista! My love of coffee started very young as well as my love for serving people with love and care.” Maddie notes that she has been welcomed into the Kelleytown Baptist Church Community and her Coker family in ways that made her confident that a business opportunity like Crema would be something she should try to pursue. “They are rallying around me as I take this next step,” she said. 

 

Madeline plans to continue the mission of Crema. She says, “I will be operating the business as Crema Coffee Bar and Catering and plan to build on the strengths this shop has built over its first ten years. My plans are to make Crema a hub of engagement for people of all ages in our community.”

 

As Tiffany Crist talks about the coming sale, she knows that she will miss the daily meet ups with her friends and customers, but she says that she believes Maddie, the new owner, is going to bring her energy, vision and entrepreneurial skills to continue building the Crema connection with the Hartsville community.