Xamán Cafe Serves Pre-Hispanic Brunch and Specialty Coffee in Oak Cliff

Xamán Cafe (pronounced: shaman) is a pre-Hispanic-influenced cafe and agave bar. The concept stems from the nostalgia the owners feel when visiting their relatives in Mexico and recalling a life of simpler times and self-reliance.

For over a decade, their team has traveled in and out of Mexico, experiencing rich history and sourcing micro-lot high-elevation coffee and agave spirits from the best nano distilleries around the country. Now, they've brought the opportunity to feel and experience what they have longed for since childhood.

Everyone walks into Xamán curious. You'll notice a dark and mysterious hallway just to the left of the barista counter as soon as you enter. That's Ayahuasca. It's a hidden gem that serves contemporary Mexican food honoring its roots but indulging in a complex palate. Yeah, you'll be back.

To the left is a wall installation that resembles an altar — a triangle made of brick that displays their awards, mugs, coffees and art pieces. The rest of the cafe is built with neutral tones and lots of wood. It has bar seating and a dozen or so tables ideal for dining or working. Outside are a few spots to enjoy the nice weather.

The menu is two pages long. One is for food and the other for a wide variety of drinks. Scanning through parts of it tested our limited knowledge of Spanish, but it was nothing a discreet Google search couldn't fix.
Food is divided into a handful of sections: breakfast, brunch, tortas, sopas y salads and tablas (boards). The breakfast items land on the traditional side with sourdough toast to order, a power bowl, croissant French toast, croissant de la Mexicana, oats and panqueques (pancakes).

Brunch is where things get interesting. Xamán Cafe serves chilaquiles (rojos, verde and mole) and a variety of omelets from plain Oaxaca cheese to steak. There are also paninis and molletes (kind of like a Mexican bruschetta) with a bunch of different proteins and flavors.

Tortas can be ordered in a few ways: chilaquiles, pambazo de chorizo (sandwich with pork sausage), cochinita pibil (braised pork) or birria. For $29 you can get a tabla with the chef's selection of meats and cheeses. There are also fideo (noodle) soup, pozole verde and pozole rojo with the house salad.

The drink menu follows the same style with the classics: Americano, cortado, cold brew and lattes plus loads of really interesting and uncommon (by Dallas standards) coffees like café de olla (traditional Mexican coffee style), horchata matcha, carajillos (boozy coffee) and cacao. Cocktails are nothing short of brunchworthy with their OJ and espresso-based creations.
Oh, and the cafe is typically open late but the kitchen closes around 3 p.m. to start serving dinner at Ayahuasca, so keep that in mind. We nearly missed the cut-off but grabbed something from each page just in time: croissant French toast and Xamán horchata.

The coffee was stupendous; we'll get to that in a minute, but we need to discuss these mugs. They're handmade of clay in Oaxaca and are probably the coolest mugs our coffee has ever been served in. Every so often when the owners come back from their trips to the region, they'll bring batches that you can buy. You can bet we're snagging some on the next drop.

As for our Xamán horchata, it is a housemade, sweet rice drink with cinnamon and vanilla served with a side of espresso. They each come in their own cup, so you can drink them separately or combine them.

Mexican coffee beans have a much different flavor profile than coffees from other regions. Ours had a bright acidity and notes of citrus that almost gave it a tangy kind of taste. 

Shortly after we created a next-level iced coffee by dumping our espresso into the horchata, out came the croissant French toast. Four croissant halves are dipped in a light egg batter with Mexican vanilla and cinnamon milk, then pressed and served with berries and cafe olla syrup.
It looks like a lot of commitment at first, both in density and sugar content, but it was on the lighter side of things where French toast is concerned: not overly sweet, and the batter was nice and light. The few berries we stacked for each bite added a nice touch of freshness.

In hindsight, the chilaquiles would have made more sense to try when we were here, but we didn't have it in us to pass up a croissant French toast. Listen, we'll for sure be back for the traditional breakfast dish ... and a café de olla... and a few of those mugs, too.

Xamán Cafe, 334 W. Jefferson Blvd., Tuesday – Saturday, 8 a.m. – midnight; Sunday – Monday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.