Thirty five years in business? No way!! For thirty five years The Extra Ingredient has been the go-to shop for outstanding customer experience in Friendly Shopping Center, and throughout Greensboro and the Triad. Surviving the competition from brands like Williams Sonoma and The Pottery Barn, The Extra Ingredient’s owners Art and Martha Nading have had to keep current on retail and marketing trends to survive. And they pride themselves on their friendly and knowledgeable staff.
But there is a “secret weapon” that the Nadings are willing to reveal…a surprise fun fact. That is, that for all the Le Creuset and bakeware and cutlery and local gourmet food products, the biggest seller at The Extra Ingredient is coffee beans. Yes coffee beans. The Extra Ingredient has literally thousands (yes thousands!) of members in its coffee club.
(Club members get a free pound of coffee for every ten pounds that they purchase.)
But how can this be? There are so many places to purchase coffee beans. Why buy from the Extra Ingredient? Martha Nading thinks she has the answer: Extra Ingredient coffee beans are uniquely FRESH. With a high product turnover and years of careful sourcing and building relationships with coffee wholesalers and roasters, the Nadings know that their beans are the freshest available. And the importance of fresh beans cannot be overstated. Coffee connoisseurs know this and we coffee lovers can taste the difference.
There you have it: extremely fresh coffee beans, chosen and roasted and packaged with care, and available locally at The Extra Ingredient. Plus, you can choose beans that are organic and fair trade. For fun, you can select beans that have been named for the finest locally owned restaurants where that particular type of coffee is served (try The Undercurrent or the 1618 Seafood Grille).
AND you can purchase all of the equipment and gadgets to make excellent coffee at home. Think French presses, bean grinders, pour-overs, espresso machines, and milk frothers, all available at The Extra Ingredient.
The most popular beans? Sumatra and Snickerdoodle. Pounds and pounds and pounds of it sold each month. You can order it online, or come into the store where there is always coffee brewing to sample.
The Extra Ingredient, open daily at 10:00am (Sundays at 1:00pm). Or order your beans online at the website: http://www.extraingredient.com
Weekend driving trips are second only to learning everything about what is in my own back yard. Greensboro and the Triad are growing and changing and renewing in a way that no one would have predicted two decades ago.