Coffee and Wine
2 ingenious Dallas coffeehouses infuse new excitement into the genre
Two Dallas-area coffee concepts are newly opened, both with a dual mission of serving coffee and alcoholic beverages. One favors beer, the other favors wine.
Civil Pour is a coffeehouse at The Hill, the center at Walnut Hill Lane and US-75 where green home store TreeHouse is located.
Pearl Cup Sip is a new coffeehouse-wine bar at The Boardwalk at Granite Park in Plano.
Both concepts hope to extend the morning focus of a traditional coffeehouse with drinks that can be served all day long.
Civil Pour
Civil Pour comes from husband-and-wife Chad and Nellie Montgomery, well-known figures in Dallas' craft beer scene and founders of the Big Texas Beer Fest.
At this sweet new spot, they're raising the bar high, combining their deep historical knowledge of beer with the fruits of their research on coffee, including having studied at Texas Coffee School and visited coffee shops across the U.S.
Their coffee program includes espresso drinks and trendy pour-overs, including the installation of a Poursteady machine, which automates the finicky and time-consuming pour-over method.
They're doing edgy drink concoctions such as the Warlock, a latte with chocolate, agave, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper.
Every day, they feature two espressos and at least three pour-over coffees by the cup, spotlighting coffee from local roasters such as Novel Coffee in Garland. They also sell coffee beans by the bag.
Their draft beer program consists of 30 taps, featuring 25 beers and 5 nonalcoholic drinks including cold-brew coffee. Their emphasis in the beer selection is on draft-only and limited releases. For example, on September 20, they'll be hosting the first tapping from anticipated local brewer Celestial Beerworks.
They've acquired a rare and fancy Gruber growler-filling machine, which they promise delivers "nearly production-brewery" quality growler fills; and a crowler-filling machine, as well.
You gotta have food, so they're doing panini-press sandwiches, pastries, and a signature dessert called the S'morespresso. It consists of bourbon vanilla graham cracker ice cream, 2 shots of espresso, and a torched marshmallow.
Pearl Cup Sip is a familiar name to anyone who follows the local coffeehouse scene. Its forebear, Pearl Cup Coffee, launched as a coffeehouse on Henderson Avenue way back in 2011. Under its original owners, the company expanded and then contracted, with the only remaining location in Richardson.
In 2018, the concept was acquired by husband-and-wife Mike and Farrah Yeager, who just opened Pearl Cup Sip, an integrated coffee-and-wine concept on The Boardwalk at Granite Park in Plano.
The couple had been living in the Pacific Northwest, where Mike is from. They decided to leave their corporate jobs and move to Farrah's home state of Texas.
"We loved the Pearl Cup brand from the moment we first experienced it," Farrah says. "The strong engagement of the baristas with their customers, their deep knowledge and passion for coffee, the quality of the products, and the welcoming, eclectic environment of the store felt like home."
"Pearl Cup Sip takes everything we love about the Pearl coffeehouse, and extends those characteristics into the evening when folks gather together to wind down with a good glass of wine, share a snack, and decompress," she says.
It's bigger in every way, with 1,300 square feet of interior space that includes a dedicated wine bar, plus an 800-square-foot patio.
The food menu has been expanded, with sandwiches, salads, appetizers, and a specialty item called loaded street fries, which come in versions such as garlic truffle, green chile cheese, and Greek. There's a kids' menu, too.
"We've kept the signature coffeecake, which was a recipe from one of the original owners' grandmother," Farrah says. "We're also doing a lot of share-ables, including boards, hummus, and a fun Italian dip that I love."
Their wine selection includes bottles plus more than two dozen wines by the glass, including 13 reds and 14 whites, priced from $7 to $15.
Their coffee drink menu includes the signature Pearl Latte, frozen Mexican hot chocolate, mocha, pour-overs, and French press coffee.
Pearl Cup Coffee will open two additional Pearl Cup Sip shops and one more Pearl Cup Coffee shop in the Dallas area in the coming months.
Salmon at Bar LouieCourtesy photo
