Brews News

San Antonio's favorite local coffee shop brews up 2 new Texas locations

This coffee merits a look.

Alamo City's favorite coffee shop is heading to the Big D. Local Coffee, founded in San Antonio in 2008, is opening not one but two cafes in Dallas in the hot neighborhoods of Deep Ellum and Highland Park.

The Dallas locations will be branded as Merit Coffee, which aligns with Merit Roasting Co., the companion coffee roasting facility. Merit's expansion into the Dallas market follows a successful launch in Austin in 2017.

The Deep Ellum location is at 2639 Main St., #140. Construction will begin in November, and they hope to open in early February.
The Highland Park location is at 4228 Oak Lawn Ave. Construction will begin in December and they also hope to open that one in February, too. Hope springs eternal.

The Deep Ellum location will be the first shop to feature a full training center where employees will learn the ins and outs of coffee, how to prepare the perfect espresso, and more.

"Entering the Dallas market is a high-water mark for the Merit brand," says Robby Grubbs in a release. "I started my career in the coffee industry in Dallas over two decades ago so launching in Deep Ellum and Highland Park is a major point of pride. We’re looking forward to bringing the Merit Coffee experience to the Dallas community."

According to the release, expert knowledge and gracious service in a fresh modern setting at Merit Coffee has become the hallmark of the Local Coffee brand in San Antonio.

Austin firm Michael Hsu Office of Architecture designed the two Dallas locations to be modern, light-filled spaces with white powder-coated steel, warm natural wood, and navy blue accents.

“Like in San Antonio and Austin, we selected these Dallas locations because they offer dynamic daytime foot traffic and vibrant culture all week long,” said Bill Ellis. “We don’t aim to blanket a city, but to find the very best real estate for Merit Coffee and we found it with these two locations.”

There are six locations of Local Coffee in San Antonio. The company opened their first location outside of San Antonio with the 2017 opening of Merit Coffee at Seaholm in Austin.

Grubbs and Ellis launched Merit Roasting Co. in the Southtown neighborhood of San Antonio in 2014 to bring a higher quality coffee bean to their shops. Merit Roasting Co. beans are brewed at all Local and Merit Coffee shops, as well as restaurant and retail wholesale accounts in Chicago, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco, and throughout Texas.

coffee

san antonio's culinary stars

5 outstanding San Antonio eateries land on first OpenTable Icons list

Photo by Robert Lerma

Nic

There's no denying San Antonio is full of high quality restaurants and talented chefs, and now five local restaurants are earning new recognition in OpenTable's inaugural San Antonio Icons list.

The OpenTable Icons lists, which first launched in July 2024, highlight local eateries in 25 cities across the U.S. and Canada, from award-winners to trendy hotspots and all types of cuisine. Chosen restaurants must have recently earned Michelin stars, James Beard Awards or nominations, positive reviews from diners and critics, and more.

The newly released San Antonio list is a combination of fine dining establishments and international culinary experiences mostly located in downtown or North Central San Antonio. While no one cuisine dominated the list, two out of the five restaurants –Clementine and Biga on the Banks – focus on contemporary American dishes.

The list also includes one 20-seat dessert bar, Nicosi, which opened in June 2024. This unique establishment takes a hard stance against the modern practice of constant social media sharing with its no-phones-allowed policy, allowing guests to place their full focus on the experience unfolding in front of them.

"In a sleek space with velvet curtains and 20 seats overlooking an open kitchen, chefs Tavel Bristol-Joseph and Karla Espinosa whip up an artful, eight-course dessert menu that’s one of the city’s most singular dining experiences," OpenTable's editors wrote.

Here is the full list of San Antonio Icons:

Best Quality Daughter, an Asian-American restaurant in the Pearl District
Cured, a gastropub-style restaurant in the Pearl District
Biga on the Banks, a contemporary American restaurant on the River Walk
Nicosi, an omakase-style dessert bar in the Pearl District
Clementine, a contemporary American restaurant in North Central San Antonio

San Antonio foodies will recognize longstanding local staples like Biga on the Banks, which has been mastering the art of new American fine dining in the Alamo City for more than 30 years. OpenTable praised the restaurant for its fresh fish offerings, an "eclectic" wine list, and more.

"When he opened Biga in 1991, London-born chef Bruce Auden kicked off a new era of fine dining in San Antonio, amassing a huge celebrity following (Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse) and racking up several James Beard nominations," OpenTable's editors wrote. "In 2000, the restaurant moved to a bigger space with sweeping Riverwalk views, the perfect setting for Auden’s ever-changing global menu with Texas accents — think spiced antelope and quail, habañero jerk scallops, and za’atar roasted cauliflower."

Pioneering establishments like Best Quality Daughter – whose head chef and owner Jennifer Hwa Dobbertin was nominated for CultureMap's 2024 Chef of the Year – also rightfully made the list.

"Dobbertin unabashedly combines Asian and global flavors in unique dishes like salt and pepper shrimp with Thai chimichurri or rice chips with mapo hummus, resulting in this singular restaurant in the historic Mueller House that is so very San Antonio," the editors wrote.

More information about OpenTable's San Antonio Icons list can be found on OpenTable. Texas travelers can also find OpenTable icons in Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

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