![\"Pierce](\"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/adpr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/03\/Pierce-LaMacchia-683x1024-1.jpeg\")
\u201cWe started in 2013, I was six months out of college and we only had the money for a coffee shop and there was a big coffee market open in Knoxville. So we just went for it and you know, the rest is history,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
K Brew has grown throughout the years into one of Knoxville\u2019s premier coffee shops with four locations in the area and two UT on-campus locations now selling K Brew coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a perfect way to celebrate K Brew\u2019s 10-year anniversary, which was October 2023. I would say that UT and Aramark have been excellent partners with us. They\u2019ve supported us as a local business on campus and that really means a lot to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
K Brew opened their first on-campus location in January of this year in the Haslam College of Business. This month they began offering freshly brewed K Brew coffee to students in Stokely Dining Hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rebecca McKnight, associate director of marketing for Vol Dining said, \u201cWe are thrilled with the opportunity to partner with a local business like K Brew and to bring it full circle, that\u2019s been really big with this partnership, to have someone who graduated from UT back on campus as a local business providing service to the UT community.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaMacchia says K Brew has always been about community and he\u2019s thrilled to bring that atmosphere to UT\u2019s campus through his own business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this era that we\u2019re living in of digital media and phones and laptops and all of that, we believe so strongly that human connection is still extremely important, whether that\u2019s face to face with somebody that you came to K Brew with or somebody that you meet at K Brew, whether it\u2019s a staff member or another guest at the store. That\u2019s what we\u2019re all about. We\u2019re all about creating and enabling human connection,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Pierce](\"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Pierce-LaMacchia3-819x1024.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nLaMacchia said he loves to walk into any one of their locations and see everything from first dates, workplace meetings, and family gatherings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would even say the coffee and the bagels are secondary to that mission of creating and enabling human connection,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LaMacchia said he always had a dream of serving K Brew\u2019s coffee on campus and providing a local option for coffee and bagels for students. He says his time on Rocky Top as a student gave him the vision and he is grateful his university allowed him to make that dream into a reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me personally, as my alma mater, we could not be prouder to be partnered with the University of Tennessee,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
K Brew is a local staple in Knoxville known for its top-notch coffee, espresso, and handmade bagels. When you walk into a K Brew location you\u2019ll notice the sense of community as each coffee shop is created to make everyone feel at home. Owner and CEO of K Brew Pierce LaMacchia (\u201812) says this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284,"featured_media":103541,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,10,50,14,3,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-alumni-news","category-cci","category-featured-story","category-news","category-tombras-school-of-advertising-and-public-relations"],"yoast_head":"\n