Where farmers are royalty
96 Royal Coffee & Cream is owned by Cedric Nwafor and Yefon Fonye, a married couple from Hagerstown. We opened on December 19, 2025. The name is our address, and a promise about how the people who grow food should be treated.
Two questions
Cedric grew up in Cameroon. The hardest-working people he knew were farmers, and they were treated as an afterthought. Years later he founded Roots Africa, a nonprofit that trains young agribusiness graduates as changemakers. The changemakers work with smallholder farming families in Uganda, Liberia, and Cameroon to raise what a farm can earn. He leads it as a volunteer, around his day job.
The second question came from Yefon, his wife and best friend of twenty years. What if honoring farmers was not only a program, but a place?
The place
96 Royal is that place. Crepes made to order on the iron, an espresso bar, and ice cream by the scoop. A room with a wall of roses and big windows on Washington Street. We run it together, with a team we are proud of.
The coffee is part of the promise. Our drip coffee is Ugandan. The espresso bar uses Ugandan beans among other origins. The next step is to buy directly from the farming communities Roots Africa works with. That is coming soon, and we will not say it is here until it is.
Sundays
We are open Monday to Saturday, 7 AM to 4 PM. On Sunday we close so our team, and our own two daughters, get a day at home.
Cedric Nwafor
Co-owner. Founder and volunteer leader of Roots Africa. Product manager by day. Cameroonian, Hagerstown resident, father of two.
Yefon Fonye
Co-owner. Runs the cafe with Cedric, alongside her work in technology.
Come say hello
96 W Washington St, downtown Hagerstown. Mon to Sat, 7 AM to 4 PM.
