Since June 2002, Café Helios has been a landmark on Raleigh, NC's Glenwood Avenue. Owner Gray Medlin originally envisioned the modern, light-filled cafe as a welcoming and local-friendly use for the downstairs of the building purposed to house his investment banking firm. Over the years, the firm moved across the street, and Helios continues to welcome patrons of all kinds in the increasingly fashionable Glenwood South area. Offering Counter Culture Coffee, locally sourced treats from Bittycakes bakery, and a chef-driven, veggie-friendly breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu – in addition to beer, wine, and spirits – Café Helios can truly appease all appetites, and continues to please new neighbors and seasoned regulars, alike.

 

We sat down with owner Gray Medlin and manager Ian F. G. Dunn:

 

 

GM: Since June 2002. We will start our tenth year in June of 2011.

 

 

GM: I like good coffee and espresso, which was hard to find in Raleigh at that time. I thought the product that was then available here was pretty mediocre, especially compared to what I could get on the West Coast in places like San Francisco and Seattle.

 

I also wanted to create a community gathering place in the tradition of the European café. It was also a way of creating a social network in the Raleigh community.

 

Inspiration: The Grove in the Marina district in San Francisco.

 

 

GM: The same thing I've been doing since Helios opened. That is, operating another business at the same time. It is an investment banking firm that I started in 1991. Two very different businesses for sure:

 

The Carson Medlin Company: wholesale, business customers (banks), big ticket sales, intangible product
CaféHelios: retail, individual customers, small ticket sales, VERY tangible products

 

Having Helios kept me grounded and in touch with real people. It was a challenge at times to look after both, but I'd do it again. By the way, I merged CMC into another firm based in Chicago on February 1, 2011 (on the 20th anniversary of CMC). I still work there, and Helios is still very important to me.

 

 

GM: High quality, honest, friendly, real stuff for real people provided by real people. Unpretentious, built to last.

 

 

GM: Our customer base is really diverse: young and old, rich and poor, educated and not, multi-racial, artists, writers, business people, politicians, students. Probably the unifying theme is that most feel strongly about supporting a local business rather than a chain. That's fine, but we happen to believe that our products are better than the chains, so most would come here, anyway.

 

Historically we've been a destination location. There haven't been many residents in Raleigh's Glenwwod South district, and we are one of the few businesses in the area with a nice size parking lot of our own. As more people are living in the area, that is changing and we are gradually becoming a neighborhood place that our neighbors walk to, as well.

 

We are busiest at breakfast, lunchtime, and evenings after dinner. As our new food program becomes more established, we expect our dinner business to increase.

 

 

GM: Behind a curtain of Japanese black stem bamboo lies a streetside patio, shaded by umbrellas and graced with flowers and specimen trees – crepe Myrtle, Leyland cypress, Japanese Black Pine, and North Carolina longleaf pine. Pass through the café's front doors, which in good weather stand open to connect the café to the world outside. You walk in on an old fashioned concrete terrazzo floor to a sea of simple dark wood tables and chairs and the buzz of two dozen ongoing conversations. At the red concrete bar sit customers, sipping cappuccinos and chatting with the barista, who is stationed behind the bar at the La Marzocco espresso machine. The burr coffee grinders whir and the drip brewer streams Counter Culture's Café Helios blend into steaming urns. A friendly staff member takes the next customer's order: the chef's best mushroom tartine baguette, a crisp green salad made of local greens, and a slice of Bittycakes' fresh apple pie, etc.

 

 

GM: Besides the best coffee and espresso under the sun, Helios offers locally brewed beers on tap, wines from around the world, and a selection of cocktails and liquor-infused coffee drinks. The breakfast menu starts with Bittycakes's cinnamon and pecan cruch coffee cake and features fresh fruit and house-made granola, the early-rise breakfast sandwich, and a gruyere-filled omelet (served with a side of spicy pappas bravas potatoes).

 

For lunch and dinner, the Helios family can start with the daily soup special (how about French onion or purple sweet potato?) before enjoying a hot, fresh sandwich (perhaps the Black Forest ham or the ever-popular turkey and avocado) and a fresh beet salad. Really hungry? How about a side of potato and leek gallettes or a serving of roasted root vegetables? You might even get lucky if Chef has cooked a mess of fresh collard greens that day!

 

 

GM: The People's Revolution of 2010. It started as a grassroots movement by our customers who politely suggested – rather than angrily demonstrated on Glenwood Avenue – that we offer a wider variety of healthy foods, organic and locally sourced when possible, for lunch and dinner. Simple request but hard to do. Our wonderful staff pulled it off and, 6 months and $60,000 later, our chef had a shiny new six-burner gas cook top, with double ovens and a vented hood, not to mention a renovated kitchen. They are taking full advantage of the new facility, turning out amazing dishes.

 

 

GM: Understanding the many steps and hands involved in getting the coffee to us was a powerful experience. It motivated us to do the very best we can with this product, which is the result of the life's work of many people, a lot of whom have much less than we do. How could we in good conscience do less than treat this product with the utmost care and respect?

 

IFGD: The Origin Field Lab did something I never expected, it combined education with emotion. I communicated with the people of Nicaragua. I saw their land, cities, and infrastructure. I saw the ugly side and the beautiful side. I compare it to meeting the maker of your favorite piece of art. An interaction took place between me and the country as a whole and that gave way to a very different kind of appreciation for coffee. So, to answer the question, yes, the trip had a major influence on my day-to-day operations. I look forward to tasting every new coffee the day it comes in and imagining the individual people that made it possible. Now, when I taste a really great coffee, I have the urge to say, thank you. One of my fundamental goals is to relay my passion for coffee to our employees and ultimately our customers.