The coffee shop at 2458 Mount Vernon Road has never had a drive-thru, and its owner wants to keep it that way.

Crema Espresso Gourmet, the French brasserie-inspired café in a former butcher shop in Dunwoody Village, has operated since 2013. Owner Erez Inbal and business partner Udi Goldstein took over the shop in 2014 from a group of Israeli immigrants who founded it, and the husband-and-wife team of Erez and kitchen manager Shirley Inbal have run it as a family business ever since.

Roey Shoshan, one of Crema's founding owners, described the shop's origin and philosophy in a Tuesday, July 21 interview on the What's Up Dunwoody podcast. Shoshan, who works at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, moved from Israel to Dunwoody around 2011 and said the area lacked a place built around the Israeli coffee tradition of sitting, talking, and gathering.

"If you have to park, walk in, and pick up your order, you're going to say hello to somebody," Shoshan said. "You might get a smile back. That's how you build a relationship between customers, owners, and employees, not through a car window."

That philosophy explains why Crema has never added a drive-thru. The site's layout makes construction difficult, but Shoshan said the deeper reason is that Inbal wants every customer walking through the door. The shop has added designated pickup parking spots for mobile app orders as a compromise.

From butcher shop to brasserie

Shoshan and a small group of friends found the vacant Mount Vernon Road storefront in 2013 and converted it into a café modeled on a French brasserie. Their single largest startup expense: a La Marzocco espresso machine, which Shoshan called "the Rolls Royce of coffee machines." A technician assembled it on-site piece by piece. That same machine still pulls shots 13 years later.

The founding group sold their stake about a year after opening. Running a coffee shop while holding a full-time job at the MJCCA proved too demanding, Shoshan said. Inbal and Goldstein took over in 2014.

A family operation

Shirley Inbal runs the kitchen and menu, working full days. Shoshan said the couple can typically be found at a table near the back of the café, ready to greet customers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Inbal family moved the register outside, built out mobile ordering through the Crema app, and enlisted their three children to keep the business open.

Crema bakes most of its croissants and pastries in-house and sources some bread from local Dunwoody businesses. The menu includes espresso drinks, loose-leaf teas, salads, and homemade lasagnas.

Community ties

The café hosts book clubs, mahjong groups, and a weekly meetup of Dunwoody Police Department officers. It partners with Dunwoody High School on fundraising spirit nights and opens its parking lot, bathrooms, and tent space during the annual Dunwoody Fourth of July Parade.

Shoshan said he conducts most of his own meetings at Crema. On a typical visit, he said, customers include groups playing mahjong, remote workers on laptops, and local business owners.

When Crema opened in 2013, Starbucks was the only other significant coffee option in Dunwoody, Shoshan said. Since roughly 2021, several new independent coffee shops have opened in the area.

Crema is open daily, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 2458 Mount Vernon Road in Dunwoody Village.