This morning, the State Fair of Texas announced the finalists for the 2016 Big Tex Choice Awards, a list of eight deep-fried, sugar-coated, heart-stopping carb-monsters that were selected from 55 original entries submitted by 34 concession vendors. The finalists were determined using four parameters: “uniqueness, creativity, presentation and, of course, taste,”…
The baristas at Houndstooth Coffee have been serving cups at Sylvan Thirty for just more than two weeks now, but this isn’t just a simple expansion from the popular Henderson Avenue spot, which opened in 2014. “Austin was our first one, so [we] learned a lot along the way, and…
By now, Dallas pretty much has an independent coffee shop located in every major zone of the city. Now, Victory Park’s got one, too: Cafe Victoria is a small, smartly designed space nestled between a row of boutique shops alongside the W Hotel, a caffeinated oasis amid an urban forest…
If you’re looking for the new Ascension location in Crescent Court, you’ll likely find another coffee shop first. Located just around the corner from McKinney Ave, tucked between the Rosewood Crescent Hotel and the complex’s office building, this new iteration of local coffee shop Ascension is spacious and warm, serving…
When Corrado Palmieri was growing up in the “heel of the boot,” as he says, he was often elbow-deep in flour as he helped his grandmother bake pastries specific to Southern Italy and his home province of Lecce. Decades later, after years of business school and working in investment banking,…
A new caffeinated option is popping up in Dallas: a tea-like drink made up of something that used to be considered an unwanted byproduct of the coffee-producing process. Cascara comes from same tree as coffee beans but is much closer to a tea than coffee — in fact, it is…
What’s the difference between a cappuccino and a latte? Is a macchiato really supposed to be filled with caramel and sugary syrup? What the hell is a cortado, anyway? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you walk into a coffee shop, and sometimes the three-lattes-deep barista seems a little busy…
It’s official. Starting this week, you can live out your entire day inside three Starbucks locations in the DFW area. In what used to be a place to grab a hyper-roasted coffee and bagel in the morning, and a quick pit stop for an afternoon jolt, Starbucks is now offering…
It took about 45 seconds for me to realize I was out of my element at Dallas Coffee Day yesterday. Now, I love good coffee and drink it every day. We’re a French press household, which I generally like to think puts us in a class above most of the…
Dallas has two cat cafes in the works. Lewisville’s Charming Cat Café forged a relationship with local shelter Kitty Save, and has their eyes on a location with a safely walled-in patio. They even launched a Kickstarter to raise cash. Meanwhile, Muffinmeow Café and Cat Lounge is drafting a business…
The only thing constant with respect to iced coffee is change. First cold brew coffee was all the rage — reveled for its fruity tones and subdued bitterness. Then slow drip contraptions from Japan wowed us all with subtle notes of chocolate and bourbon plus a highly caffeinated kick. Now…
Chances are, unless you are endlessly wealthy and/or the laziest person on the planet, you sometimes brew coffee at home. Maybe you have retired your plug-in coffee maker in exchange for a French press or Chemex. You even buy your beans from a local or specialty roaster and grind them…
Barring monks and weirdos, we all drink coffee. And we have two types of coffee shops from which to choose: the trendy, independently owned spots or Starbucks. Traditionally, the eco-conscious, local-loving, soy milk-drinking people patronize the indie shops while the mainstreamers get their brew fix from one of the 21,000…
Starbucks recently announced a new beverage meant to attract customers who are cutting back calorie consumption after the holidays. It’s called the flat white, and boasts stronger coffee flavor with less milk, making the drink easier on the waistline. Yes, the company that sells caramel Frappuccinos that clock in at…
If the baristas at Mudsmith in East Dallas are anything, they are curious coffee makers. I’ve developed a habit of newspaper-reading while sitting at the bar, and on a few occasions I’ve watched as they tinker with something new. There was a brief stage where mixing stout and coffee seemed…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. See other extended interviews in our coffee archive, or see them all in one place in this week’s feature story, “Roasting Dallas.” Clay Eiland talks about his roaster with the beaming face of a dad describing his four-year-old’s soccer…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. See other extended interviews in our coffee archive, or see them all in one place in this week’s feature story, “Roasting Dallas.” Every Saturday, Kevin and Mara Sprague get up before the sun and set up their tent, table…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. See other entries from the series in our coffee archive. A few years back, after years spent behind coffee bars, Gerald LaRue decided it was time to delve deeper into the business of coffee. He ended up in Juno,…
Like craft beer and chef-driven restaurants before it, specialty coffee is having its moment, finally, in Dallas: Davis Street Espresso, in Oak Cliff, has found that a lack of Wi-Fi and to-go cups has not meant a lack of customers. Ascension, in the Design District, hums all day, despite limited…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. See other entries from the series in our coffee archive. Kevin Betts and Ryan Smith are chasing the perfect cup. This never-ending pursuit eventually pulled these two brothers-in-law into forming Novel Coffee. Both have been involved in the coffee…
There is no day on your future schedule, none whatsover, in which you will get more work done than the day you sipped a Kyoto Brew from Ascension. You know that level of caffenination when you find yourself saying words at ten times the normal volume, and your laughs burst…
All week, we’re bringing you stories from Dallas’ burgeoning roasting community. Monday we introduced you to the guy behind Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters, and yesterday the guys behind Tweed. Jonathan Meadows was 18 when he started working at White Rock Coffee and fell in love with coffee culture. “A big…
