The first time David Chapman saw his future wife, Christy, he was a 15-year-old high school student stopping by the local coffee shop before class. She was the beautiful 21-year-old barista: utterly out of reach.
“You know how in religious paintings from the Renaissance, there’s sometimes a halo of light around someone’s head? That’s what happened when I saw her,” David recalls, perched on a bar stool next to his bride of 13 years in Bean Traders, their popular coffee shop near The Streets at Southpoint. “I’ve never had that happen with anyone else ever in my lifetime. I knew immediately that she was special. It just took a long time before I got to be a viable choice of being the man in her life.”
The owners of the shop where they met, CoffeeWorks in Charlotte, told David that Christy was out of his league – a busy woman with big plans and a bent toward adventure. But David never gave up. He stopped by for a jolt of caffeine every morning before school and sometimes after, hoping for a chance to get to know her better. When Christy left to drive across the country with her boyfriend three years later, David walked up to the window of their VW bus as she waited to pick up her last paycheck.
“We should be taking this trip together,” he told her.
She left without him. David graduated from high school and attended UNC-Asheville. When he returned to Charlotte, the CoffeeWorks owners gave him an apprenticeship in coffee roasting, and he launched on his future career path.
And then one day, Christy walked through the door.
‘HEADFIRST’
A lot had changed for both of them. She had started Bean Traders in Durham. She was only back in Charlotte for a quick visit. She was also dating someone else in town. But David was 21 now, and not about to miss his chance. He wrote her a poem, and then invited her for a walk by a lake. She started turning down dates with the other guy for the chance to talk to David. He soon moved to Durham, and they started working together at Bean Traders. They were engaged that January, and eloped in Las Vegas the month after.
That quick turnaround is how the Chapmans do life. “You don’t get the chance to be with someone you think is incredible and beautiful and amazing very often, or even ever,” David says. “If that window opens, you’ve got to dive through it headfirst. You can’t hesitate. If you want something, you’ve got to dive in all the way.”
“You’re still that way,” Christy says to him, smiling.
“I guess to own and operate a small business, you have to be that way – you have to make decisions and make things happen,” David says. “That’s an incredible thing about Christy as a woman and as a business owner – she’s had a lot of foresight and made incredible decisions.”
CAFFEINE AND COMMUNITY
The Chapmans share a passion for coffee and community. After eloping, they were back at work at Bean Traders within 48 hours. The business has been a mainstay in their relationship. Early on, they had many hours where it was just the two of them working behind the coffee bar, whipping up lattes and running the register side by side. The shop used to have multiple locations, but the couple chose to focus on just one location when they had children: Bijou is 9, and Bodhi is 7.
Christy has started experimenting with baking for the shop, so they see each other less often at work. David helps run the coffee bar, while she measures and bakes in the back of the shop. After more than a decade working mostly in the same busy room, it’s an odd feeling when they sometimes don’t see each other all day.
“Even now, nothing feels more comfortable than when she comes in and helps me make drinks,” David says.
