Specialty coffee has a habit of overcomplicating itself. Black & White Coffee Roasters built a national following by doing the opposite — and the story behind the Wake Forest cafe involves two actual national champions.
How it started: champion and coach, twice
In 2016, Lem Butler won the United States Barista Championship in Atlanta, coached through his routine by his longtime friend Kyle Ramage; Butler went on to place fourth in the world in Dublin. The next year the roles reversed: Ramage competed with Butler coaching, won the 2017 US title, and reached the world finals in Seoul. Then the two did what competition baristas dream about over closing shifts — they opened their own place.
The opportunity was local: Ramage had been consulting and training for Back Alley Coffee Roasters in Wake Forest since it opened, and after his championship the owner offered to sell. Butler and Ramage formed Black & White Coffee, LLC in 2017, purchased the operation — an already-running roastery and ccafés — and rebuilt it around their own name and standards, roasting on a 15-kilo Loring.
The philosophy: if it tastes good, it is good
The founders' stated inspiration was making the coffees they experienced at the competitive level as widely available as possible — championship-level coffee without the gatekeeping. The menu architecture reflects it: single-origin coffees and complex blends organized so normal humans can navigate them, by roast level or by a flavor profile of clean, mild, or funky, under three core values of service, community, and excellence.
Wake Forest headquarters, national reach
The Wake Forest cafe anchors the operation locally — the champion-belt holder of the downtown coffee circuit and the standard first stop on any White Street walking tour — while the company ships worldwide, runs a subscription program, sells brewing gear, and supplies wholesale accounts. In 2025 Black & White joined the FairWave specialty coffee collective, with Ramage continuing to lead the brand; Butler, the co-founder whose 2016 title started it all, departed with the company's gratitude and a community's.
Location and hours are on their directory listing.
