OK, people of Mebane: What’s your favorite coffee drink missing right now? If you said “bubbles,” that’s about to change. Earlier this month, Mark Daumen purchased the former Mebane Enterprise building, a space that has sat virtually empty for nearly two years. If all goes according to his and his business partner’s plan, Markola Beverages soon will be using the location to sell a coffee drink that is all the rage in Durham.
Daumen, who has called Mebane home for the last six years, works at the Durham Hotel, a mid-century modern, 50-room boutique hotel in downtown Durham, where he has, for the last decade, crafted a coffee program in the hotel’s grand lobby. It’s there and during this time that he created a coffee syrup that is the basis for the Durham Soda, a concoction that manages to make coffee light and refreshing. The drink has become a local sensation.
In 2020, Daumen began packaging his coffee syrup as Markola Coffee Syrup, and selling the product through his website. He also began keeping an eye on potential locations in Mebane to set up shop and offer his drinks and syrup to a new audience. For the last two years, Daumen has taken an interest in the former Mebane Enterprise building on Fourth Street in downtown Mebane. The building is divided into two sections, the larger part having several office spaces and a bathroom, and the smaller having a door and a walk-up window with a roll-up closure. The Mebane Enterprise was merged into the News of Orange County in 2023. The building has since been closed…