Inside Counter Culture’s 10th Training Center, in Charleston

After opening its first training center west of the Mississippi in the Bay Area this Spring, Durham, N.C.-based Counter Culture Coffee has planted its southern roots even deeper, opening a training center in Charleston, S.C., and celebrating with a grand opening party this past weekend.

The Charleston regional center is the company’s 10th, while an 11th is in progress in Los Angeles’s Silver Lake neighborhood. Like all of CCC’s regional hubs, the training center will not include a retail component — instead it is designed for professional use and training — although there are public tastings every Friday morning at 10 a.m.

CCC’s Charleston center occupies a one-story brick, train-style building at 85 1/2 Spring Street in Midtown Charleston in the Upper King district, which has in recent years seen major residential revitalization combined with new, limited-use businesses in formerly residential dwellings. The building itself was originally used as a small church, but was most recently home to the small creative agency FuzzCo. CCC built in a front bar for espresso preparation, a main area for cuppings around a long wooden table, a residential-style kitchen and a fenced-in back patio.

(All photos courtesy Counter Culture Coffee)