Paul’s Jewelers in West Allis, Wisconsin, opened the 7Cs Cafe this past June. Coffee drinks are served from the cafe’s custom trailer in the morning. When the jewelry store opens at 11 a.m., service moves inside to a custom-built coffee bar.
Milwaukee—Paul’s Jewelers in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, has opened a coffee shop within the store that has allowed it to expand beyond the four Cs in a playful way.
Its name, the 7Cs Cafe, is a nod to its offering of coffee, chocolate, and cookies plus the four Cs of diamonds: cut, color, clarity, and carat.
The cafe begins selling refreshments at 7 a.m. on weekdays and Saturday mornings via a custom gold-wrapped trailer parked outside the store.
When the jewelry store opens at 11 a.m., service moves inside and resumes from a custom-built coffee bar.
The custom-built coffee bar inside Paul’s Jewelers, an independent jeweler in West Allis, Wisconsin
Polychronis “Paul” Antonopoulos opened Paul’s Jewelers in 1967. Current owner Mircea “Mitch” Prejbeanu took over the store about four and a half years ago.
Prejbeanu said his first passion is hospitality, and he initially had the idea to open a coffee shop about 10 years ago after being laid off from his job.
He set the dream aside while he partnered with a friend to take over a jewelry trade shop from its retiring owner.
After a decade or so of repairing and manufacturing jewelry, a customer approached him and asked if he’d like to purchase a jewelry store and move the trade shop into the same building.
Mircea “Mitch” Prejbeanu, owner of Paul’s Jewelers
As the new owner of Paul’s Jewelers, Prejbeanu looked for ways to bring his love of hospitality into the jewelry business. It wasn’t long before he was making plans to open his long-desired coffee shop as an extension of his jewelry store.
The 7Cs Cafe opened at the end of June after about nine months of construction and preparation.
Prejbeanu got the idea for the cafe’s name from a story about another jeweler who added a coffee offering to their store and integrated “the fifth C” into the café name.
“I thought, why can’t we do better than that? So, I thought chocolate and cookies would be nice,” Prejbeanu said.
It’s already paying off, from a marketing standpoint.
Paul’s Jewelers employees leave free drink coupons at the optical store next door, and once, two sisters brought over their coupons.
“They got their free coffees, and one of them needed to fix her ring. It was a $250 repair. The other one went around and found a $1,600 pair of earrings, so the marketing really worked,” he said.
Related stories will be right here …
It is important to Prejbeanu that the cafe stock high-quality, sustainable refreshments that support local businesses as much as possible.
“The coffee is roasted locally, sourced from around the globe, much of it is single origin … I hired an expert to create our [espresso blend] for us, and that’s done 20 minutes from our shop, so it’s always fresh,” he said.
The cookies come from a bakery in Madison, Wisconsin, which is about an hour away, and the chocolate comes from a nearby business called Tabal Chocolate. Tabal works with and invests in small-scale cocoa farms globally, particularly those managed and or supported by women.
The thoughtfulness behind the cafe reflects the store’s values and sourcing philosophy.
7Cs Cafe’s full-time barista, Anisa Garcia, preparing a drink. The cafe serves coffee from local roasteries.
“When we source gold, diamonds, and everything else, we carefully select everything. Then there’s the craftsmanship … it’s the same with making a good cup of coffee,” Prejbeanu said.
The 7Cs Cafe also offers tea and lemonade for its younger customers, which is intentional.
“They come and hang out, but in five to 10 years, somebody is going to propose to them, and I think they’re going to send them by us,” he said.
Even though the cafe has only been open for a few months, Prejbeanu is already thinking about how to improve and further utilize it, starting with signage.
For security reasons, Paul’s Jewelers customers must be buzzed into the store.
“[Local journalist] Lori Fredrich said that gives it a speakeasy vibe, and I’m leaning into that. We’re special, we’re not like any other coffee shop, so I’m embracing it,” he said.
“But some people still don’t understand, and they just pull on the door, so today, I’m getting a big buzzer engraved with ‘coffee buzz buzzer.’”
While he eventually also wants to take the custom trailer to events or local fire stations, having it parked outside Paul’s Jewelers has increased foot traffic, a positive for a store that is proud of all it has to offer.
“I like us to be known as a blue-collar jeweler. We do everything in house. We work for other jewelers as well, but the retail store is our best customer. We don’t send anything out except for lapidary work; everything else is done in that same building there,” Prejbeanu said.
“They say that, for jewelry, 85 percent of transactions are still done in-store. We like to win one customer at a time.”
