Waffle Time

Breakfast lovers get it 24 hours a day at new restaurant near downtown Dallas

Waffle House serves good, cheap breakfast 24 hours a day.

Photo courtesy of Waffle House

Urban breakfast options just got a little more waffly with the February 15 opening of a Waffle House on Ross Avenue. This new branch represents the most inner-city that the Georgia-based chain has opened in the Dallas area.

"We did just open today," confirms manager John Velis. "And aside from our location on Northwest Highway and 35, this will be the location that's nearest to the downtown area."

Ordinarily, the celebration of a chain restaurant opening another location might seem unjustified. But other chain restaurants don't serve breakfast 24 hours a day, with crisp waffles and trademark hash browns done eight ways, including "smothered," "covered," "chunked," and "diced" — hash browns so legendary that bands such as Unsane and Hootie & the Blowfish named songs after them.

The food's good and it's also cheap, with a basic breakfast of bacon and eggs with grits and toast for $6.25. (Although working for them doesn't sound so fun.)

The restaurant is located at 5111 Ross Ave., one block south of Henderson, in a layout that's refreshed for the chain.

"It's updated to a newer size, with a retro touch on the seating," Velis says. "Every store has a little bit of a different seating setup, but the new stores are going to be more uniform and a little bigger."

The store is part of an Waffle House expansion in Dallas-Fort Worth, Velis says.

"We are building several in the Dallas area," he says. "We just finished a branch at Jim Miller and I-30, and we're also opening one at I-35 and Illinois, with several others in development. Dallas has been such a strong market for Waffle House in the last five years that our corporate office in Atlanta decided to build 16 more stores in the area."

breakfast openings

Coffee News

New Dallas coffee shop opens with good coffee — and great hair

Common Good

Common Good coffee and good vibes

A new coffee shop with some serious styling has opened near downtown Dallas: Called Common Good, it's located at 1619 N. Hall St., right off Ross Avenue, in what was previously a retail outlet for Rakkasan Tea Company, who left the space in mid-2024.

Common Good is more than just a coffee shop – it's a coffee shop-hair salon from Christopher Bermudez, a stylist who previously owned Ellum Salon in Deep Ellum which he sold in 2022. Their motto: "Good coffee, good hair, good vibes."

Bermudez was born in Mexico City and moved to Dallas when he was one year old but remained close to his culture and often travels to Mexico City, where he found the inspiration behind this new concept.

"I was inspired by the multiuse spaces in my hometown of Mexico City: coffee shops that turn into a nightclub or tequila tasting rooms in the evening. Great vibe is what we are going for," he says.

The coffee shop is in the front, while the hair salon is in the back, divided by a large glass. The salon has eight stylists, including Bermudez.

The shop also features all-vinyl jam tables where guest DJs play music most weekends, creating a cool atmosphere. The décor resembles listening rooms that are popular in South Korea, with custom-made wooden walls and modern furniture.

Good vibes at Common Good Coffee and hair salonCommon Good

Heading the coffee operation is Jesse Nava, who recently worked at Xaman Coffee in Oak Cliff, and they're partnered with Lemma Coffee for beans and barista training. The shop offers a small but solid menu, with espresso and coffee classics, plus some specialty drinks including pistachio matcha, cardamon rose latte, espresso freddo, and a Mexican mocha.

“We want to stay consistent with a small menu — we want to get it right, then eventually add to it," Bermudez says.

They plan to add food, as well, working with a local bakery still to be decided for muffins, croissants, kolaches, cookies, and bagels.

They're open Tuesday-Saturday from 7 am-7 pm, with shorter hours Sunday and Monday, from 7 am-2 pm, since the salon portion is closed those days.

They've witnessed a big demand for coffee, since the center they're in had coffee history: The storefront on the corner at 1623 Hall St. was once Method Coffee, then Fiction Coffee, which closed at the end of 2023. (It's now home to Black Swan Saloon, the resuscitated bar from acclaimed mixologist Gabe Sanchez.)

They see themselves as a neighborhood coffee shop, where residents of the multiple apartment complexes around can become regulars. They are dog-friendly, serving pup cups.

"I always believed that if you have a good product people will come," Bermudez says.

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