New owners of Common Ground Coffeehouse not new to Beaufort. A peek at what’s to come
Downtown Beaufort’s popular Common Ground Coffeehouse is closing this week, but the new owners — who are not new to Beaufort — plan to keep selling coffee and baked goods while adding a variety of their own touches, including retail products such as bottled cider.
Ramona Fantini has sold the 24-year-old Common Ground to Scott and Mandi Lee, who own Low Country Cider Co. Superior Coffee, a popular Sea Island Parkway country store the serves coffee, pies, baked goods and sells retail products, too.
Fantini and the Lees confirmed the sale with Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet on Wednesday.
The Lees plan to open a second Lowcountry Cider Co. and Superior Coffee at the Common Ground location overlooking Waterfront Park.
Common Ground’s final day is Thursday. Then the Lees will take over. Beginning Friday, the business will be closed for about three weeks for some touch-up work before reopening as Lowcountry Cider Co. and Superior Coffee, Scott Lee said.
The new business, he said, will combine the best of Common Ground and Lowcountry Cider Co. and Superior Coffee. For example, Common Ground’s gelato and most of its baked goods will stay including its renowned tomato pie. But there will be additions such Lowcountry Cider Co. and Superior Coffee’s name-brand cider, jellies, jams and jerky and its owned baked goods including pecan pie. Shakes made with Hershey’s Ice Cream are coming to the menu as well.
In January, improvements will be made to enlarge seating and improve customer flow. Additional tables with umbrellas, Lee said, will be added on the store’s side of West Street Extension.
“It’s going to be the same store, just freshened up, more choices,” Lee said. “It’s going to be a great location for the long-term.”
Six of the seven employees plan to continue working at Lowcountry Cider Co. and Superior Coffee, including the baker, Fantini and Lee said.
The Lees’ son, Zach, also has a 25% stake in the business.
‘It was time for me’
Fantini started a gelato shop at Hilton Head’s Wexford in 2007, which grew to 16 locations including several major airports. She bought Common Ground, which opened in 1998, in 2014. She kept the business, which overlooks the Beaufort River, when she sold the Pino Gelato Corp. a few years ago, but its demands became too much.
“I think it was time for me where I am in my life,” Fantini said of her decision to sell the business and transfer her building lease. “I’m also struggling like every other small business with labor and supply chain issues, which are causing me to work seven days a week and I don’t really see it changing much.”
Fantini wanted to find somebody who would run the business as a coffee shop and keep the “Beaufort spirit” if you will. “It just all seemed to come together,” she said, “and it was the right decision.”
Besides the Low Country Cider Co. and Superior Coffee on St. Helena Island, the Lees own a number of businesses in Hilton Head, Bluffton and Beaufort, including the Barefoot Bubba’s and Carolina Me Crazy stores on Bay Street.
Several months ago, when Fantini told Lee that she was thinking about retiring, he said he was interested.
“It’s my hope, and I think it’s going to be true, that the spirit of the coffee house is always going to be in that location,” Fantini said. “And its always been a stopping place for tourists and I have a huge local following. I think it’s going to be a little different, but change is good.”
Fantini plans to take at least two months off to see friends and family she hasn’t seen in a long time. She says she will continue to work and plans to stay in Beaufort.
“I think there’s something else on the horizon,” Fantini said.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 1:15 PM.
