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By Christian Simmons

For the Clemmons Courier

Growing up on a farm in Winston-Salem, Philip Weisner has always felt the need to help others.

He grew up raising cattle with his father and helping out his mother with Village Beverage in Clemmons.

When he was a sophomore at West Forsyth, Weisner was on the varsity cross-country team. He also participated in indoor as well as spring track throughout high school.

Making captain in his senior year, Weisner went on to graduate in 2004 and he completed a year of schooling at Forsyth Tech as he awaited his entrance into the U.S. Navy.

Since his father was such a big influence in his life, Weisner decided to follow in his footsteps.

“I’ve heard about the travels I would be doing in the Navy, but once I learned that I could learn about electronics and fire control systems, that sealed the deal for me,” Weisner said.

In August of 2005, he decided to make that leap and join the Navy, becoming an aircrewman aviation electronics technician.

While he was in the Navy, Weisner went to schools in Pensacola and Jacksonville, Florida. It was in Jacksonville where he met the love of his life, Danielle.

In 2007, Philip was stationed at VP-47, located at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, where he flew on a P-3C aircraft. Weiser and Danielle were wed there and had their first son, Jonathan.

Several years later, they transferred to Patuxent River, Maryland where Weisner served with a Naval Research Laboratory Squadron and flew on the P-3C aircraft. Here, Weisner got to see and operate the fleet’s future electronics that were still in testing. Not only that, but his life had another surprise for him. There, second son Christopher was born.

In 2014, Weisner had to go back to school as the Navy retired the aircraft he was on and replaced it with the P-8A Poseidon, which was a heavily modified 737 Boeing.

Over the next two years, Weisner learned to convert to an acoustic warfare operator.

“This allowed me to track submarines while flying in the P-8A aircraft.” Weisner said.

After his two years of schooling, Weisner was transferred to the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit schoolhouse in Jacksonville.

There, he started to help train the future generation of Naval Aircrewman that were following in his footsteps.

In 2018, while still in the Navy, Weisner met his best friend, Andre.
The two of them collaborated and came up with the idea of owning coffee shops that eventually ended up helping the men and women in the military, as well as other organizations.

“While I was deployed, my wife was working on a project for me and called some of my friends to help her with it,” Weisner said. “One of those people was Andre Leon, who I had served with in Maryland and mentored. He went on to become an officer in the Navy, but during that time, he had been roasting with his small roaster and had brought some down for Danielle to try. He had talked to her about opening a roastery and that’s when she had mentioned me and suggested he talked to me about coming onboard.”

And as far as giving back to the community?

“We wanted to help give back not only to veterans but to nurses, first responders and teachers, too,” Weisner said. “We knew that group of people in our lives helped take care of our families while we were deployed and we wanted to have a way to always say thank you. We donate to schools and hospitals along with veteran fundraising events in our community and surrounding areas.”

And that’s not all they give back to.

“Additional fundraisers we have participated in were the Jacksonville Humane Society while we were stationed there,” Weisner said. “We also participated in the Georgia K9 Foundation and are big advocates for Toys 4 Tots. Those additional fundraisers, drives and foundations are important to not only us but some of our core team members.”

Life, it seemed, was on the up and up for Weisner. But it didn’t come without its costs. In August of 2018, his father died. It took its toll on him.

“Not only was he my biggest influence, he was also one of my biggest supporters,” Weisner said.

And if that wasn’t enough, the coffee shops had their own brand of hardships.

“As far as the coffee shops are concerned, one of our biggest hardships was when we were building the coffee shop in Augusta, Georgia,” Weisner said. “We were unable to obtain small business loans. So, we used our own savings accounts. And then the second-hardest part was finding contractors during that time. Augusta was going through a large growth phase, and everyone was booked up for months.”

In October of 2021, Philip made the decision to leave the Navy after 16 years and 4,500 flight hours under his belt.

“I not only wanted to give more attention to my family, but also to furthering the coffee shops Andre and I made back in 2018,” Weisner said.
Today, the coffee shops have two locations.

“Our roastery and first cafe is located at 1128 Jones St., Augusta, Georgia,” Weisner said. “It is a 100-year-old historical building located in the heart of downtown Augusta.”

The second cafe that they recently opened in September of 2023 is the couple’s first drive-thru. It is located at 116 N Belair Road, Evans, Georgia.

“This location was a prior Gary’s Hamburger and before that a Wife Saver restaurant,” Weisner said.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about the coffee shops, Weisner has made a way for you to do just that:

“We ship out freshly roasted coffee to all 50 states and even wholesale to other coffee shops! You can find more information online at www.uboracoffeeroasters.com or email us at support@uboracoffee.com”