Indy Coffee (Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown: houses, college, live)

[Thorga]

I'm thinking of moving from Seattle and eventually my dream is to own my own coffee shop. I know about Jo's and Flipnotics and that really beautiful one by the lake but I haven't heard much about drive thru's.

We have coffee shacks about every 2 miles and even more out in the boonies...do you guys have things like this? Also, anyone have a fave coffee house? Why? What do they serve that you love? Any areas you think would be great for a small indy? Thanks!

[austinonline1]

I love this article:
10 coffeehouses where we love to linger - although I don't think one of my favorites is listed - Green Muse in South Austin. There's a drive through in the Hancock Shopping Center - think it's called It's A Grind - might be a chain.

See also this City Search list.
Austin Coffee Shops & Diners Restaurants on Citysearch (http://austin.citysearch.com/yellowpages/results/Austin_TX/page1.html?flavor_id=2&cw1=25 - broken link)

When my travel schedule slows down, I want to catch every one I can!

[austinonline1]

And I would vote for one over here in the West Campus area! For those of us who live on the edge between Caswell Heights and Clarkesville - there's not much for us grown ups to walk to who live on the edge of the campus area because of the green, quiet streets and pretty architecure. When are you going to open???

[Trainwreck20]

Have you checked on the coffee comsumption per capita here? I really have no facts, but I would guess that it is less here than in Seattle, just based on the weather. Coffee just doesn't seem to go over as well in 100 degree heat. Of course, maybe we drink just as much down here, not sure.

I always end up getting my coffee at the new HEB, which is about 1/4 mile from my house and has a pretty nice coffee shop built into it. Costs half of what Starbucks does and you can get a made-to-order breakfast taco from the deli . Of course, you can't drive through, though .

[twange]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Have you checked on the coffee comsumption per capita here? I really have no facts, but I would guess that it is less here than in Seattle, just based on the weather. Coffee just doesn't seem to go over as well in 100 degree heat.

What about iced coffee drinks...yum!

[Phisch]

How about tea and boba?

Are there any places that sell both? Seems to be a dearth of Asian food places but I haven't looked too hard...yet.

[Trainwreck20]

Stretching the topic a bit, but here is some interesting data from the National Coffee Association (http://www.ncausa.org/): (broken link)

The average coffee consumption per capita in the United States is around 4.4 Kg. Among coffee drinkers (i.e. not per capita) the average coffee consumption in the United States is 3.1 cups of coffee per day (NCA). Per capita men drink approximately 1.9 cups per day, whereas women drink an average of 1.4 cups of coffee a day (NCA).

The National Coffee Association found in 2000 that 54% of the adult population of the United States drinks coffee daily (NCA Coffee Drinking Trends Survey, 2000). They also reported that 18.12% of the coffee drinkers in the United States drink gourmet coffee beverages daily (NCA). In addition to the 54% who drink coffee everyday, 25% of Americans drink coffee occasionally (NCA).

They have regional data, but you gotta pay to see that . Didn't find any (easily accessible) data on regional coffee consumption....

[Thorga]

Thanks for the interest guys! I'm an admin now but I managed coffee shops for about 10 years off and on while in my 20's. One thing I miss up here is a chain from SoCal call Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. They have ice blended coffee drinks that are made with real coffee and real milk unlike Sbux. they also have no sugar added versions so your drink isn't 900 calories. If I ever open a shop in Austin I've decided 4 things:
1) offer discounts to teachers/professors and employees of UT. Students have enough places that cater to them in a college town.
2) have a drive thru if at all possible. I can speak from experience that it's nice to stay in your warm/or cool car and get your coffee
3)Have a couple varieties of iced tea avaiable in 32 oz size
4) make ice blenededs as close to Coffee bean and tea leaf as I can.

As for breakfast tacos....my fave version is made with chorizo (super spicy) eggs, Cholula sauce and jack cheese.

As for when I'll open....it will be a while. Saving up money in Seattle isn't as easy as it used to be. Keep the ideas coming I'm trying to plan a visit around September and want to go scouting.

What about a place I heard of called the Lost Sock? It's a laundry/cafe much like a really popular place we have up here called the sit and spin. Anyone know it?

I've also heard about little downtowns out in the burbs like I think there's an area called Georgetown? What are these areas like? Sorry for the novel!

[love roses]

Round Rock already had SaraDora's (they also have live music weekends, or used to)...Hutto has Java Rocks. Georgtown is not an area. It's a tiny bit North of Austin, and it's own town, as many of the suburbs around Austin were and are. Georgetown by far has the best downtown of any of the towns surrounding Austin (nearby anyway, I'm not discounting Wimberly or Buda either). I believe they do have a coffee shop or two, but Georgetown is big enough, I believe, to support several different competitors of the same product. Round Rock too. There is a new club in their downtown that opened, mainly to bring some nightlife to the area, and want to draw businesses that would stay open later, so I bet you could have an edge on the other coffee places that don't stay open later. When I lived in Rice Village, there was a coffee bar that stayed open just about as late as the clubs and it was always busy. The atmosphere was such as it blended in well with the club scene around it.