The other day on a typical run to Proud Mary, I noticed a new sign advertising a coffee shop opening next door. And, as is the modern way, a recommended post for the same shop showed up on my feed the day after - I figured I'd give it a try.
Funky Sol is a retro-themed, mobile coffee shop that lives in a renovated 1975 airstream alongside Bouldin Acres. The trailer itself is gorgeous and suprsingly spacious, complete with a double-head Marzocco and tile specially imported from Europe. Definitely take a look at the renovation process on their website [1] or Insta [2] if you get a chance.
Their menu features a ton of different interesting specialty and seasonal options - I went with my trusty flat white and was very impressed. If you're in need of some groovy 70s vibes or just solid coffee, definitely recommend stopping by.
Shortlist of some favorite spots for the month:
- Flora Coffee [1]
If you follow me on other accounts this will be no suprise - I post this place almost too often because of the incredible latte art. But looks aside, both the coffee and the staff here are of the highest quality. Definitely give them a visit.
- Lau Lau [2]
Opened in mid-August, Lau Lau is relatively new but already serves an extensive menu of unique Asian-American fusion drinks. I am quickly making my way through all of them - I highly recommend the five-spice cortado.
(And special thank you to the owner, who was an incredible source of information while I was writing my original "Coffee Grounds" article [3].)
- Luanne's Coffee and Matcha [4]
I wrote about them a few weeks ago [5], but will happily feature them again. Say it with me now - WE SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES! The owners here are simply lovely, and I can't wait to see where this shop will end up moving to.
Tarifs are taxes on imported goods mainly used to keep domestic businesses competitive with foreign alternatives. For US businesses, these are often critical protections - for coffee, however, they simply don't make sense.
Specialty coffee grown in Hawaii and Puerto Rico makes up a fraction of a percent of the total coffee consumed in the United States. This means that tariffs on US coffee don't create or preserve American jobs, they simply raise prices. Which is exactly what happened: August saw the fastest monthly increase in coffee prices since 1997. [1]
Luckily, this is finally being recognized by goverment officials. Trump, earlier in the week, said simply: “We want to get coffee down a little bit.” And on September 19th representivies Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) (yes, bipartisan) put forward the 'No Coffee Tax Act' [2] which would exempt green coffee, roasted coffee and coffee byproducts from the new tariffs. Currently, the bill awaits review in the house.
Zackary Smigel, in his most recent video:
This isn't just about inflation, this isn't just about Starbucks. The entire culture of caffeine is shifting. We are witnessing the perfect storm unfold: climate chaos, economic pressure, automation, and changing consumer habits - all colliding into a full-blown identity crisis for our favorite brown drink.
Or, in short:
Coffee, something many people take for granted, is facing more challenges and becoming less accessible.
A great, high-level overview of the incredibly complex and changing role that coffee plays in the modern world, and the challenges that consequently have arisen. My favorite parts in this were the section on tariffs [1] and why they are uniquely detrimental to the US coffee industry, and the subsequent part [2] on the environment in countries where coffee is grown.
Oh, and always love a good teardown of Starbucks and their anti-union/barista/customer shenanigans.
Last week, East Austin coffee shop Luanne's Coffee and Matcha announced that the shared space they are currently located at on Cesar Chavez is unfortunately closing down. However, this means that somewhere in Austin will soon be getting a new shop!
The owners have asked the community to help them find their new home. When we spoke, they mentioned that they were particularly interested in business like salons or yoga studios that would want to co-locate, but they are open to any and all suggestions. The shop has a very small footprint and is fully mobile.
If you know of any good locations, or know anyone who might, please reach out to them on Instagram @luannescoffee [1] and help support the Austin coffee community!
A few days ago Palomino Coffee officially began the soft launch of their new Airport Boulevard location [1]. Nestled between a doggie daycare and an indoor golf course, and right next to their roastery, this brand new shop is a clean evolution of the original 12th street location [2].
Featuring big, bright windows, loads of plants, and the same stylish Southwestern interior, the cafe is making its early rounds on social media; this place is very instagram-friendly. And to great effect: I was there for a few hours before close and there were a steady stream of customers even after the 'open' sign was remedially turned off.
The coffee itself was solid - I had my obligatory test-Cappuccino - but the menu featured a handful of specialty drinks that I am intrigued to try as well. Like the original location, however, food was not offered. But I was told that they were planning on experimenting with some food options in the near future.
The soft launch will slowly roll into a full opening in the coming months, according to staff. For now, watch their Instagram [3] for hours, and definitely check out this new East Austin spot.
Austin Coffee festival just wrapped and I am (as always) filled with thoughts.
The lineup this year featured a solid mix of big Austin players and smaller shops, with a few bonuses from out of town [1]. Most were roasters, but I'd estimate that just under half were representing some form of brick and morter as well.
Espresso and pour overs abounded, but the name of the game this year was definitely cold brew. There were very few stands that didn't have some available. In a convention setting like this it is by far the easiest to server, but I still would have loved to see more espresso machines!
Cold brew isn't my thing, but I did have a couple interesting experiences. In terms of actual cold brew taste, I thought Merit's was the best on the floor. I was enticed to try Trianon's due to their new machine on show which could produce a batch in only 30 minutes, though I think the final results fell a bit flat on the finish. Still, for such a short brew time, the intial flavors were definitely on show - and it didn't have the stale notes that I tend to get in most cold brews I've tried.
Cold brew aside, Greater Goods came to play with a creative latte featuring toasted star anise syrup, mandarin foam, and a sprinkle of salt that I thought was just superb. Sightseer had a bourbon and orange zest espresso that they very kindly ended up giving me the full recipe for. And Medici featured both a mango and pineapple co-ferment that I could smell without even walking up to the stand.
I have to call out a couple of surprises on the floor as well: the first being Comeback's Coffee Sodas [2] - these are something I normally wouldn't try, but honestly they were excellent. The Lemon and Thyme flavor we tried had this smooth yet bright punch that danced around the coffee. Then there was the father/son duo from Trippy Buck [3] who served what might have been my favorite drink of the day: a half-washed, half-honey processed medium roast grown at their farm in Ecuador. This coffee stood out at the convention in the best way, and I brought multiple friends back specifically to try it.
Lastly, the speaker session. The first day's event was a group interview of four local shop owners: Trianon, Sightseer, Barrett's, and Medici. The interview itself was fine - really, I wish we had seen a few more hard-hitting journalistic questions, but it was overall a good discussion with some very knowledgeable industry people. In general, all panelists seemed to agree that the prices for shop coffee drinks needed to go up. However, the actual reasons we're a bit vague: most cited general increased demand for specialty coffee like single-origin and sustainably farmed beans as a catalyst, but none specified which part of the chain needed the additional funds. I'd love to follow up and get more information on who they would actually see that money - the farmers? Roasters? Sourcers? I think this was a critical point that was missed.
Overall, the festival was a solid showcase of the Austin coffee scene. Personally, I would have liked to see more shops making an appearence to balance out the slightly roaster-heavy roster, but the event seems to be mainly targeting those in the coffee industry, so this distribution is not entirely surprising. Additionally, this event is still relatively small in comparison to other coffee events in the country, so mainstream awareness is still brewing.
I look forward to seeing what next year has to offer!
I don’t work in coffee. But I’ve spent the majority of my waking hours this past week in a coffee shop—and I don’t think I’m alone. Neither, apparently, does the Austin City Council, which unanimously agreed last week on a proposal aimed at making it easier than ever to open a coffee shop or truck in Austin [1].
The measure aims to introduce more cafés into Austin’s residential areas to encourage the creation of community spaces as part of the larger Imagine Austin initiative [2]. According to the proposal’s sponsor, Ryan Alter, the updates are intentionally focused on cafés and coffee trucks. The document even calls out Austin shops First Light, Littlefields, and Desnudo by name, highlighting them as examples of the kinds of spaces the city needs more of.
The larger goal—to foster community spaces—and the specific choice of coffee as the vehicle, says a lot about Austinites’ attitude toward our cafés: they are the grounds from which we, as a city, grow.
Case in point: check the wall of your local café. Proudly displayed in many shops are community boards covered in posters for local events, companies, artists, and more. These boards serve as free, much-needed advertising for independent businesses, helping to cross-pollinate one another while also providing a convenient directory for patrons.
Coffee shops also serve as accessible third places [3] for communities across the financial spectrum, offering not only a delicious pick-me-up, but also critical amenities like AC, internet, water, seating, and restrooms that both enable and encourage customers to stay awhile. But more than that, they provide a place for people to meet and socialize with friends and strangers—something that’s becoming increasingly important as new generations drink less alcohol [4] and, consequently, spend less time in spaces that used to be social hubs like bars and nightclubs.
As the informal host of this space, the modern barista wears many hats. Often they are not only creating your drink, but also working as a guide through the world of coffee (“actually, a macchiato is…”), a sommelier discussing origin and tasting notes, a latte artist, and a friendly face, all while maintaining conversation—so please, consider a tip!
Finally, coffee connects Austin to the globe. Shops like Lau Lau’s (Chinese-American), Sa-Tén (Japanese), and CaPhe.inCoffee (Vietnamese) blend Asian and American cultures into their drinks. And many cafés serving single-origin coffees connect us closely with our neighbors to the south—Talisman (Nicaragua), Mercado Sin Nombre (Mexico), and Desnudo (Colombia), to name a few.
These businesses unite Austinites in vital ways, and it’s refreshing to see city representatives give such a clear endorsement of that fact. I spoke with a few shops that opened this year, and many mentioned a lack of café-specific zoning, steep re-zoning costs, and restaurant codes being enforced on coffee shops (even if they didn’t serve food) as major hurdles to opening. I was thrilled to see the proposal mention all of these issues, but I remain cautiously optimistic on the outcomes: this is, afterall, a proposal to discuss solutions to the problems, not a proposal to actually fix them.
For the third year in a row, Austin has ranked in the top ten on WalletHub’s Best Coffee Cities in America [5], and there’s still so much room for the culture here to grow. With the 2022 opening of Proud Mary on South Lamar, Austin was introduced to the powerful force of Australian coffee culture. Australia is well-known for taking coffee seriously: shops are highly community-focused, in large part because around 95% of Australian cafés are independently owned [6].
Through their public cuppings, Proud Mary has continued this community-forward approach in Austin, while shops have found different paths. We’ve seen a massive influx of catering carts and pop-ups from Mercado Sin Nombre, Luna Espresso, and Creature coffee that are making great coffee even more accessible. Spots like Epoch, Mozart’s, and Radio have closely tied themselves to the local music scene, hosting regular events and concerts. Desnudo and Flora even have run clubs! And many more across the city continue to provide essential spaces and identities for the neighborhoods that they call home.
One of the most important elements of good coffee are the grounds—and the same can be said (if you’ll allow me the dramatics) of culture, too. Where we meet can significantly influence who and how we meet. And, at least for now, it seems where Austinites increasingly meet is over a cup of coffee.
Need more emerald green and dark wood in your life? Today, religious-themed eastside darling Klerje Coffee [1] has officially opened their new expansion, almost doubling the shops overall size. This couldn't come soon enough: one of my only complaints about this place was the limited seating.
In addition to more tables, the expansion should provide additional space for community events like their Sunday pour-over party. Or, if you're in it for the vibes, bring a book and order anything off the fall flavors menu - bonus points if it's raining.
Give an offering to the coffee gods and stop by next time you're in east.