Our Story
Three generations of service. One family’s journey home.
John and Lashelle Thompson with grandchildren at the store, Christmas
Meet John & Lashelle
Behind every great coffeehouse are people who pour more than coffee — they pour their lives into it. At We2Friends, those people are Colonel (Ret.) John Thompson and Lashelle Thompson.
Lashelle is the granddaughter of J.B. Mathis, the school principal who built the original general store on this very spot in 1950. John is a retired U.S. Army Colonel whose family’s story of military service spans generations — and whose path home led him and Lashelle back to this building, this road, and this community.
Together, they represent two extraordinary family legacies converging on one little coffeehouse in Cherokee County. Their journey here is a story of sacrifice, faith, and a dream that never died — no matter how far from home it took them.
Three Generations
Same school. Same sky. Same calling. Shared experiences.
— Generation I —
Captain Robert A. “Bo” Thompson
North Georgia College, Class of ’62. A gunship pilot with the 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry — the legendary “Headhunters” — Bo was shot down and killed over the Song Re Valley on August 9, 1967, on his second combat tour. He was twenty‑eight.
Read His Story →
— Generation II —
Colonel John W. Thompson (Ret.)
North Georgia College, Class of ’87. A 30-year career comprised of conventional, special operations and joint assignments with his last command in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment — the Night Stalkers.
— Generation III —
Major Bryce Thompson
University of North Georgia, Class of ’14. Currently serving with the 160th SOAR — the same regiment his father commanded and the third generation as an Army Aviator.
Night Stalkers Don’t Quit
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment is the U.S. Army’s premier special operations helicopter unit. Flying modified Black Hawks, Chinooks, and Little Birds under the cover of darkness, they support the nation’s most critical missions — the kind you read about years later, if at all.
Their pilots are hand-selected. Their standards are unforgiving. They fly at night, at treetop level, in the most hostile environments on earth — and they arrive within 30 seconds of the planned time. Every time.
Colonel Thompson served with the 160th across a 30-year career that spanned Desert Storm, joint special operations at JSOC, and multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He rose from platoon leader to Commander of the entire Regiment — the 12th Colonel to hold that command.
“Night Stalkers Don’t Quit.”
That motto isn’t just words on a wall. It’s how the Thompsons have lived — through loss, through war, through 30 years of service, and through every setback on the road from the cockpit to the coffeehouse.
The Dream
After a lifetime of service — the deployments, the late-night missions, the moves from base to base — John and Lashelle Thompson came home. Home to Union Hill. Home to the land where Lashelle’s grandfather had once built something that mattered to an entire community.
And through all those years away, one dream had stayed with them:
“My dream ever since we left the military life was to revitalize this little piece of history into a coffeehouse that reflects the warmth and welcoming environment of the surrounding community and Cherokee County.”
Not a franchise. Not a chain. A coffeehouse — the kind of place where you know the person making your latte, where the pastries are fresh, where a stranger can walk in and leave as a friend. A place that honors the past while building something new for the future.
They meticulously restored Lashelle’s grandfather’s 1950 building — earning a Historic Site Award along the way — and filled it with warmth, character, and the best coffee in North Georgia. On June 10, 2026, they opened the doors of We2Friends Coffeehouse and invited the whole community inside.
The Night Stalkers’ motto is “Night Stalkers Don’t Quit.” John and Lashelle never have, and never will, providing for their community.
The Thompson family — three generations gathered at the store that started it all
So, Who Are the “2 Friends”?
Every good coffeehouse needs a good name — and every good name needs a good story.
The “2 Friends” in We2Friends goes back to John and Lashelle’s earliest days in the Army. Just prior to deploying to Operation Desert Shield/Storm, a very good friend and college classmate, Heath, joined their unit in Germany, along with his wife of 1 month, Cindy. Having nowhere to live and husbands about to deploy, Lashelle asked Cindy to live with her while the husbands deployed. That sparked a lifetime friendship and common interests in making their multiple houses into homes throughout their military lives.
After John and Heath retired, Lashelle and Cindy combined their love of decorating into We2Friends home décor, which has evolved now into We2Friends Coffeehouse and Gifts. The dog and rooster are symbols of John’s passion for labrador retrievers and training them to hunt, and the rooster was an affectionate nickname for Heath throughout his college and young adult years.
Explore the History of Our Building
From J.B. Mathis’s 1950 general store to a beloved community landmark.