First Look: White Rhino Sets Up Shop in Downtown

A new café has opened up in The National building downtown and this is a place where we can afford to eat. Marking its seventh location, White Rhino Coffee’s downtown spot offers a small, quaint place to grab some coffee and sit down to work.

Next year White Rhino will celebrate 15 years in business since opening its first location in Cedar Hill. With each location, White Rhino founder Chris Parvin aims to create a community around coffee. Each White Rhino location is slightly different from the other, and while the downtown location is less intimate than that of its flagship, or even that of its State-Thomas location, the downtown cafe serves as a lovely commuter spot.
Coffee shops runneth over in Dallas' Central Business District. In addition to several Starbucks, there's Stupid Good Coffee,  Rise + Thyme inside the Exchange Food Hall, La Tarte Tropézienne, the new Parterre, Weekend Coffee inside the Joule and the Flying Horse Cafe at the Magnolia. There's a coffee bar inside Nieman Marcus (with a Champagne vending machine to boot). The Commissary, Zero Gradi and Berkley's Market will all happily grind fresh beans for you.

So, this new White Rhino certainly has its work cut out for it in terms of wooing the downtown crowd. The space is cleanly designed with white marble floors and tables. The large glass windows offer great views of downtown, though most are currently obstructed by ongoing construction. While some coffee houses are a mix of both work and play, this one seems more oriented toward the grab-and-go crowd.
But if you do stay for a bit, you’ll be delighted to see that each barista makes an effort to remember your name, even if hours have passed and they’ve served several customers between the time you arrived and now. “How are you liking that coffee, Alex? Would you like to sample this pastry, Alex? Have a good day, Alex,” are a few sentiments this writer heard during his three-hour visit to White Rhino.

One of our favorites is the Whole Latte Love, a traditional latte flavored with lavender and honey ($5.50). For those not big on coffee, White Rhino also offers teas and seasonal beverages like iced cider and horchata, — the latter of which is traditionally served cold and iced, but tastes surprisingly great when heated ($5.50).
But the real star of the menu is the maple-glazed chicken biscuit ($8.95). Baked to fluffy perfection, the biscuit is stuffed with a pickle-brined fried chicken breast, bread and butter pickles and a maple syrup spread. This sweet and savory sandwich is tasty enough to give Chick-fil-A a run for its money — and priced at nearly $9, you as well.

It’s great to have another coffee shop downtown, and while White Rhino’s new downtown location may not be as intimate as its others, fans of the community-centered coffee shop can enjoy quality coffee beverages and easily caffeinate before or after their DART commutes around the city or pick up hearty salads and sandwiches on their way to or from the office.

White Rhino Coffee. 1401 Elm St. (Downtown). Open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m daily.