#dfwcoffee

Dallas feels like a huge suburb. The communities that surround North Dallas are especially this way. Whether you are driving on highways 635, 75, 121 or 35E, there is very little to differentiate any of these communities from any of their neighbors on the road. By road, Dallas seems like a sea of two and three bedroom single family homes with some McMansion swells making up the tide. If you’re not overwhelmed by this part of suburban sprawl, perhaps the random, but not too random, combinations of chain retailers will float your boat.

On the surface, Carrollton is one of these communities. To be sure, Carrollton has its fair share of chain stores and single family homes; however, Carrollton is a community that is changing. One of the places where it’s changing most is its downtown.

Much of downtown Carrollton seems modeled after downtown rejuvenation projects from the 1990s. There’s an old theater, old town “ma and pa”-type businesses and charming small retailers selling baby boomer-era nostalgia.

There’s also a DCTA station, a highway, and new multi-family development all around. It feels like an area that is in transition caught between redevelopment models and looking for its soul.

I’ve visited Lemma Coffee Roasters at 1014 S Broadway location in Carrollton twice over the last month. There I found soul. Both times that I’ve visited, I’ve found a fresh third wave coffee shop doing something that I haven’t seen a coffee shop do for a while: be a hang out place for the community.

As with any creative undertaking that finds itself as an expression of a “movement,” there is the requisite third wave coffee aesthetic of the Lemma Coffee Roasters shop. The walls are white, the duct work exposed and there is a small collection of plants and photos to break up the monochromatic black and white interior design. Of course, yeah, I like it. This is my kind of style. What’s not to love about a carefully curated batch of pictures featuring the desert, vintage signs, motorcycle parts and a blue camper? These are all the ingredients that go into making hipster heaven.

But there’s something else that is super cool happening here. People hang out at Lemma. Like, a lot of people come and hang out at Lemma. Regular people come and hang out at Lemma. You don’t see that anymore at coffee shops. That’s the stuff of second wave coffee.

Sure, people will come and do work at a coffee shop in the old days, but it seems like a rare sight to see people come in and hang at coffee shops anymore. I think that part of the reason is that coffee shops aren’t really built for hanging out like they used to be. Food is becoming an increasingly important component of the coffee shop business and so many places seem like they are trying to turn a table to bring another customer in. I don’t know if it’s anything specific, but that feeling that isn’t present at Lemma.