Coffee shop gives
 owner fresh shot 


By Rachel Tobin Ramos

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If running a coffee shop can bring redemption and healing, Sean Lupton-Smith hopes to find both at Cafe Nineteen.

His new venture in Atlantic Station is meant to be a place where people meet, use the wireless Internet connection, listen to cool tunes and enjoy Italian Illy brand coffee and other drinks prepared by a well-trained staff. There’s also a menu of soups, salads and sandwiches, plus beer, wine and spirits for the late-night set.

But for Lupton-Smith, 40, who came to Atlanta 12 years ago from his native South Africa, more than business rides on Cafe Nineteen’s success. It’s his chance at rebuilding his American dream, after a mix of super-charged ambition, overreaching, personal tragedy and mixed luck sent it off track.

Lupton-Smith made millions of dollars in his first few years in Atlanta. Then a deal-gone-sour left him cash-strapped, suing former associates and struggling to hold it together as an entrepreneur.

His story starts outside Johannesburg, where he was born. His father died when he was 6, and his mother, a psychologist, raised her three sons to be independent and entrepreneurial. In their teens, Sean and his eldest brother, Mark Lupton-Smith, sold things door-to-door, from tomatoes to vacuum cleaners. They even bred guinea pigs to sell to pet shops.

After stints in the military and at college, where he got a degree in commerce, the brothers started a factory that made tea and coffee sets out of cast clay. Besides business, Lupton-Smith’s passion was distance kayaking, and he competed at the highest levels of the sport.

“For me, it was my home,” he said of South Africa. “I like the bush, adventure, huge rivers, beaches, Indian and Atlantic oceans.”

But at age 28, Lupton-Smith got shocked badly while installing an oven in the factory, burning his hands. He took a corporate job so he could heal and still kayak. He and his brother later closed the factory.

Then, Mark Lupton-Smith, a world-ranked tennis player, moved to the United States and opened several Atlanta Bread Co. franchises. His younger brother decided to follow him and join the business. Mark handled the financial side, Sean the operations.

They had three franchises and quickly found success. Life was good for Sean Lupton-Smith, who bought a 1966 Piper Cherokee, got his pilot’s license and flew the plane as far as Telluride, Colo.

Then tragedy intervened. Mark Lupton-Smith died in a 2002 hit-and-run accident as he left a late-night event in Buckhead.

“My elder brother was like the leader in the family,” Sean said. “He was the first to come to the U.S. I try to live up to his legacy. I only now realize the unbelievable pressure he must have felt.”

Lupton-Smith sold his plane as he took the reins of the businesses, saying he “took life a little more seriously” after that. He also didn’t want his mother to lose another son.

He opened two more Atlanta Bread Co. franchises, giving him five — including two at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport that were the highest grossing in the chain. The five franchises produced more than $1 million in profit annually, he said.

Riding high, he walked into an BMW dealership one day and laid down $55,000 in cash for a 2004 M3.

He used the profits to strike other business deals. He worked with Raving Brands’ founder Martin Sprock to develop Boneheads, a restaurant using South African ingredients, and he was a partner in a Flying Biscuit franchise.

But one of his deals — a franchise of PJ’s Coffee & Lounge at Atlantic Station — put him at odds with the owners of Atlanta Bread Co., brothers Jerry and Basil Couvaras, who also hail from South Africa. They terminated Lupton-Smith’s franchise ownership, saying he broke a noncompete clause and other parts of the contract. Lupton-Smith sued for damages.

The case is still unresolved, but Lupton-Smith lost both his main income and his bankroll for other ventures.

Around the same time he sank about $1 million into an upscale restaurant in Midtown called SAGA (for South Africa Georgia).

“I took all the money I had left, cashed out my 401K and insurances,” he said. “Every last dime I put into SAGA to prove a point: I was told by the CEO [of Atlanta Bread] that he would crush me. I wanted him to see that he picked the wrong guy. I’m not a fighter, but I wasn’t going anywhere.”

SAGA flopped, closing after just nine months.

“Only afterwards did I realize how inexperienced I was and how much I needed to learn,” Lupton-Smith said. “You wonder if there is a limit to the amount of opportunities you can pursue. I think my ego got in the way.”

Since then Lupton-Smith has dramatically scaled back his living expenses and hasn’t traveled in three years to see relatives, including his mother, who now lives in North Carolina, and family back in South Africa. He only kept his BMW, he said, because it was paid for.

The last few years have been “very hard on Sean,” said his lawyer, Randy Edwards. “He’s gone from having five very successful franchises that paid his salary and those of several hundred employees, and on top of that, a million plus dollars in profits every year. Now he’s had to lay off all of his employees.”

More personal troubles arose as well. Lupton-Smith’s uncle died of an aneurysm, and in January, his girlfriend was diagnosed with the same ailment. She’s had two brain surgeries this year.

“It was a life-changing experience for me. She’s recovered very well,” said Lupton-Smith, who has never been married.

One lesson that Lupton-Smith has carried forward is to ask for help. When PJ’s Coffee changed ownership, Lupton-Smith opted to cancel his franchise contract. He kept the Atlantic Station space, but was casting about for what to do with it.

He collaborated with Atlantic Station’s vice president, Brian Leary.

The two play soccer together — Lupton-Smith is a goalkeeper, Leary a striker — and couldn’t be more different. Leary, an architect, is a stickler for design details and adherence to an aesthetic theme.

He helped design Cafe Nineteen’s interior, develop the menu and create the logo.

Lupton-Smith is back in his comfort zone as the fanatic operator.

Leary thinks the coffee shop — named for the street where it’s located — has growth potential. “If we get this right, there’s an opportunity for a Cafe Nineteen in every new development. If you go to any smart-growth conference, this is the kind of thing they are looking for.”

If Cafe Nineteen succeeds, Lupton-Smith will be able to rebuild his finances and claim a success of his own. He said he’s seen an uptick in sales since renovations, which were finished in July, including an expanded sidewalk with outdoor tables.

Irving Jacobson, a restaurant broker with The Shumacher Group, knows Lupton-Smith and has worked with Atlanta Bread Co. He said many in the restaurant community are “sympathetic towards him. It’s really caused him a lot of hardship. Sean’s got a very good reputation.”

Recently, Lupton-Smith has found solace at another Atlantic Station venture — a startup church, Midtown Bridge Church, that holds services in the movie theater and meetings in Cafe Nineteen.

Pastor Larry Grays has taught him how, “actually driving hard is not the most Godly way to do things,” Lupton-Smith said. “Sometimes it’s not to take on too much. Now, at least I’ve got some freedom to say, ‘I messed up. Forgive yourself.’”