Sip a Bacon Waffle Latte and talk tattoos, sobriety at this new Stallings coffee shop

As soon as you step into Bill and Bob’s Coffee Bar in Stallings, you’ll feel pretty quickly that you’re making a new friend. You might even recognize the gregarious owner behind the counter, Albert Jeanniton — better known as AlFliction from Season 1 of “Ink Master.”

Jeanniton also owns the shop next door, AlFliction’s World Famous Tattoo. So when you park yourself at the penny-adorned bar to drink an espresso and soak in the chitchat, you’re likely going to hear about tattoo ideas and industry conventions. You’ll also hear Jeanniton greeting folks as “Bob” when they come in the door. It’s a not-so-secret code, if you’re in the know.

There’s a sobriety circle and triangle symbol fastened outside the door of Bill and Bob’s, named after Alcoholics Anonymous founders Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. Photos of them and odes to their work hang on the coffee shop’s walls, and a pulpit is tucked in a corner with a screen showing the serenity prayer and 12 steps hanging above it.

The coffee bar also holds Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Wednesdays in the space from 7:30-8:30 p.m., set up to evoke the feeling of a bar to help people making a transition out of that setting. Jeanniton, a man with a mission who’s never met a stranger, will readily share that he’s among them.

He opened the tattoo shop in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the tattoo conventions where he makes a living as AlFliction were shut down. He also ran a bar in the Bill and Bob’s space. But, eventually, as the tattoo artist balanced a heavy workload and travel schedule along with personal and professional conflicts, he knew he had to make a change.

Jeanniton closed the bar and found sobriety, holding AA meetings in the space. He began to sell coffee there, and the idea grew into Bill and Bobs, which opened earlier this year.

Now, you can snack on a bagel or a piece of cheesecake while you’re sipping coffee at Bill and Bob’s But if you really want to start your day off with a buzz, Jeanniton encourages customers to try his Bacon Waffle Latte, made with mini waffles, a strip of bacon and powdered sugar. It’s a creation that blossomed from childhood memories of when his mom made Cafe Bustelo coffee in the mornings before school for her children to dip their waffles into.

“That was natural for us — that’s what we had in the morning,” he said.

When he’s off at the tattoo shop or an Ink Master convention, one of his three other employees takes over. In addition to holding AA meetings, Bill and Bob’s also sells sober-themed merchandise with proceeds going to local nonprofit Beyond Sober. He’s working on starting a prison ministry with Elevation Church, and other community groups use the space for meet-ups and game nights, too.

“I’m all about the community and giving back,” Jeanniton said.

Bill and Bob’s Coffee Bar

Location: 2701 Old Monroe Rd, Stallings, NC 28104

Instagram: @billandbobscoffeebar