Founders Michael and Ben Powell grew up surfing competitively and traveling the world to find world-class surfing destinations — and that spirit of chasing something good, wherever it takes you, runs straight through everything Drift does.
I first tried Drift Coffee around 2019. Their original location was on Eastwood Road, near the Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty office. Since then, they’ve expanded — slowly at first, and now at a much faster clip. Last I counted, they have somewhere around five shops in Wilmington, one in Southport, and a couple now open in Raleigh. They’re clearly doing something right.
From Mix-It-Up Spot to Emerald Member
For a long time, Drift was my change-of-pace stop from The Complex Bean. That all changed once I moved downtown. The Drift Coffee location down there sat directly across from my coworking space at Common Desk — thirty seconds out the office door and I was ordering. That kind of proximity will make an Emerald member out of anyone, and I blew through that tier so thoroughly that the owners joked they were going to have to invent a new category just for me.
The Coffee
Through the winter, I went through a lot of lattes — usually a straight latte, either unsweetened or with just a touch of sweetener. Occasionally I’d branch out for one of their seasonals: a peppermint syrup around Valentine’s Day, a pistachio through fall and winter. I kept an eye on the seasonal menu and jumped in whenever something caught my attention.
One thing I steered clear of was their chai, for the same reason I mentioned in my Complex Bean review — it’s built on a purchased syrup rather than made in-house, and it runs sweet. Not really for me. But the coffee itself was consistently excellent.
You’ll notice in one of the photos that the standard latte-art heart is a little mangled. I went there so often that one of my favorite baristas, Moira, started getting creative with the art whenever she topped off my drink — inventing some increasingly ridiculous explanation for whatever shape she’d made. I never argued with her; it was too much fun. The photo in question is actually her one real failure — she stared at it, admitted she “had nothing,” and offered to start over. I wasn’t about to waste a good latte, so I told her to leave it.
Then there was Taylor. Or, as I knew him for the first three or four months, “Kevin.” Early on at the downtown location, I somehow got it into my head that one of the baristas was named Kevin — and for whatever reason, he never corrected me. So I called him Kevin for months, and he just went along with it. Eventually the manager overheard me and said, “Who the hell is Kevin?” I said, “Isn’t that… Kevin?” Nope — Taylor. At that point the manager and the rest of the staff couldn’t stop laughing, and to rub it in, they started calling him Kevin too. I felt a little bad for the guy, but he seemed to take it in good fun.
Breakfast
Breakfast at Drift was a regular thing for me, and two dishes became staples.
The breakfast burrito was big — the photo doesn’t fully do it justice, but it was genuinely filling. It mixed standard scrambled eggs with black beans and chorizo, giving it a nice Southwest lean.
The soft scramble doesn’t sound like much on paper — it’s just scrambled eggs — but the execution set it apart. They cook their eggs in butter rather than seed oils, and they’re properly fluffed, so the eggs come out light rather than dense. Served with a hearty piece of bread, I’d round it out with fresh avocado or bacon. Between the burrito and the soft scramble, that was my breakfast rotation for quite a while.
That focus on ingredients wasn’t an accident — the owners clearly care about sourcing and nutrition, which shows up across the menu, from the lack of seed oils to the quality of what actually goes into each dish.
Lunch
For lunch, my go-to was the warm Market Bowl — seasoned chicken and quinoa, sweet potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts, and a green sauce that wasn’t quite chimichurri but landed close to it. Between that bowl and my usual breakfast order, Drift represented a real staple in my routine for a long stretch.
The Market Bowl also came with an unexpected bonus. Marty, a Yorkie, belongs to a good friend of mine who’d come to Drift with me — and a bit of that chicken is how Marty and I became fast friends. A few shared bites and that was it, friendship sealed. To this day, Marty’s owner will still text me that she can tell Marty needs a visit to get some good food. (Photo of Marty included, obviously.)
A Couple of Small Gripes
My only real complaint is that chai syrup. Also worth knowing: they don’t carry coconut milk, so on days I wasn’t in the mood for anything else, I’d default to almond.
I also asked, more than once, whether they’d consider adding kombucha — the same question I’d asked at Complex Bean. They told me they’d tried it before, but it hadn’t done enough business to justify keeping it. I pointed out that was before I was a regular. As of my last visit, still no kombucha.
Owner Involvement
The owners rotate between the stores, and since they also use Common Desk themselves, I ended up seeing them more often than most customers would. They’re genuinely receptive to feedback — at one point they’d switched the self-serve water station to plastic cups, and when I told them that was a step backward, they went back to glass. It’s always a good sign when the owners actually take the advice.
Grab-and-Go Options
Two other items I cycled through when I needed something quick: the chia cup, a fresh chia seed pudding layered with bananas, almond butter, berries, pumpkin seeds, and a grape jam layer at the bottom to mix in — perfect when I didn’t have time to sit down for savory eggs. And the granola and yogurt, which I’m fairly sure is made in-house, topped with granola, berries, and a generous (more than I’d personally add) drizzle of honey. Even with the extra sweetness, it was well ahead of anything prepackaged you’d find at a grocery store.
Smoothies
Drift runs four smoothies: the Sunrise, the Aztec, the Life, and the Strawberry Banana. The Aztec was my favorite by a wide margin — the least sweet of the bunch, closer to a protein drink than a dessert, built from banana, almond butter, cacao, dates, cinnamon, and unsweetened almond milk. On rushed mornings, an Aztec smoothie and a latte would get me back at my desk in three or four minutes flat.
The Menu
The Verdict
I’ve been to several Drift locations at this point, but the downtown crew will always be my favorite — I simply spent more time there than anywhere else. Still, you really can’t go wrong getting a Drift.
Wait, is that a joke?
